The Dragon's Gem (3 page)

“Hopefully
, now that they know she is safe they will back off,” he murmured.

I laughed inwardly.
“The council never backs off, but I refuse to let them chain me to someone I hardly know and don’t want to be with.”
LIAR
! my inner voice screamed, knowing full well how attracted to her I was.

“You know
, Aurora seems really nice, you could just drop your attitude and get to know her. I mean even if you don’t want to be with her right now, you might find a way for you two to be friends,” Belynda said next to me.

“I’m young and I definitely
don’t need someone who would be so dependent clinging to me all the time, even if we were just friends,” I told her, realizing even as I said it how unfair that statement was. Aurora was blind and some exceptions had to be made for that, but she clearly didn’t use her condition as an excuse to let others do things for her. Both friends cast me looks of disapproval, but I ignored their caustic stares and returned to watching Aurora.

S
he was not what I had expected. She had a natural kind of beauty that I usually didn’t go for. Her hair was a coppery brown curtain that shined and curled untamed around her angelic; face, her eyes were so green they sparkled like the deepest emeralds; and her body was well rounded, with feminine curves that made my hands itch to touch them and had me near drooling. It was an odd reaction. I normally chose females who were blond, thin, more like fashion models. In other words, the total opposite of the female fate had made for me. My attraction for her confused me and complicated things. I had decided before meeting Aurora to ignore her presence and go on with my life as if she were not there, but I was beginning to see that might be extremely difficult. I wanted to ignore her, but every part of my being wanted to get closer, to find out what it was about her that drew me to her.

*****

I spent the rest of the day making sure Melinda stayed away from Aurora. Keeping my eye on the girl who would play a huge part in my future everywhere she went. I was exhausted by the effort it took to trail her and it only proved my theory that having her there was going to be a trial for me.

I felt Melinda’s presence in t
he hall and turned to watch as she stalked through the crowd, slamming into Aurora’s shoulder with a snarl before turning to look at me with a satisfied grin. Clearly, she was making a challenge, one I knew she would not give up on until she got her way, or I forced her to stop.

“She’s not going to let this go
,” Nate said behind me.

“Keep an eye on her
. I don’t want this to turn ugly, but if she messes with Aurora, I will have no choice but to deal with her.” I didn’t like to use my position in our society to deal with other dragons, but I would if Melinda became a problem.

“Do you think she would be so stupid?” Belynda asked.

“I think she does not really comprehend the need I have to protect Aurora. My breaking it off was not something she understood or accepted.” I sighed and looked to where Aurora was speaking to Ryan and a group of his friends. She seemed very comfortable and was answering their questions about her blindness with the practiced ease of one used to educating others about her condition, which made me feel stupid. I had worried about her fitting in when I had heard she was blind, but now I could see she had no problem with it and neither did anyone else around her.

“Let’s
get out of here and go to the mall or something,” Nate said next to me.

I sh
ook my head. “Sorry, man, part of my punishment is that I have to go to my father’s company and work to pay off the money he had to shell out for the damage I did to the gym.” It hadn’t been my fault that I had found out via text message about the council’s decision regarding Aurora. I really had tried to get out of the gym, but once angered, the beast inside of me was hard to control and the ensuing damage had been the result. Now I had to pay for my momentary loss of control.

“I’ve got go
too. See you both later,” Belynda said, rushing off down the hall.

“Guess I’m on my own then,”
Nate said, slapping me on the shoulder. “Have fun at work.”

“
Yeah, see you later.” I grabbed my bag and looked back to Aurora’s locker, expecting to see her there, but she was already gone. With the halls quickly emptying, I decided to walk to the back entrance where my father said the car would meet me after school to take me to his office. Sure enough, there was a black SUV waiting at the curb with my father’s driver standing beside it. The driver, Henry, a longtime employee of my father, opened the door upon my approach and I tossed my bag inside, unprepared for the feminine screech of surprise that followed my action. I quickly looked inside, surprised to find Aurora running her hands over the bag that had landed upon her lap. My cheeks flushed with embarrassment. “I’m so sorry… I thought this was my car. I swear I would never throw anything at you.”

“It’s alright
, Draco,” she said softly.

The way she said my name was like a warm caress and I f
elt my body quiver in response. “Honestly, I didn’t know you were there,” I mumbled, uncomfortable with the feelings being near her caused me.

“
I’m sure it was an accident,” she replied sweetly, lifting the bag up and holding it out in my direction.
How did she do that?
I thought as I grabbed the handle, unprepared for the jolt of electricity that ran through me when our fingers brushed. She gasped and let go of the bag, which I pulled against me as if it would somehow shield me from the attraction I had to her.

“Henry
, is my car on its way?” I asked, backing out of the vehicle, hoping to get far away from her before I acted on my sudden need to pull her into my arms and kiss her soft, pink, glossy lips.

“Your father
sent me to gather you both, young Pendragon. I am to drop off the young miss at the house, and bring you to the office after.”

“Great, just freaking great
, are you saying I have to share a car with her every day now!” I growled, angry that my father had stooped to force us together in such a manner, not stopping to consider that she could hear me.

Henry cleared his throat and closed the door before turning to look at me with disapproval. “Sir
, I may be out of line, but I feel I should remind you that the poor girl inside of this car did not ask for any of this. You could try to be a little more respectful of her feelings.”

I felt the heat
of embarrassment rise in my cheeks and nodded. Henry had known me since I was born, never before had he called me on my bad behavior, and believe me there had been many times he should have, so for him to do so now meant I had really stepped out of line. Having said his piece, he reopened the door and I got into the car, seeing clearly the trail of tears on Aurora’s cheeks. Immediately I felt sorry for my harsh words and was ashamed I had been so thoughtless. She turned her face away from my direction and laced her fingers on her lap, her hands trembling slightly as I got in and took my seat.

The car pulled away from the school and
was almost home, but still she ignored my presence, which made me feel like the biggest ass in the world. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. I was just surprised to find you here in the car.” She didn’t respond, which I deserved, but I tried again. “I know I acted like a jerk, and for that I apologize.” Still she did not respond, which frustrated me even more. Who did she think was? I hadn’t asked her to come into my life and change everything, but I was trying. “Could you give me a break here? I am trying to be nice.”

That drew a re
action, but not one I expected. She turned to me, her mouth drawn into a tight bow of disapproval and let me have it. “Give you a break? You have been rude and inconsiderate since the moment we met!” Her hands waved in the air as she was stressing her point and I had to dodge them so they wouldn’t hit me. “No, forgive me. I’m wrong. Apparently, your hatred of me started before we even met, if I am to believe all of the gossip I heard at school today, so why should I give you a break. You didn’t even care to meet me before forming an opinion about me, what does that say about you?”

“I…” I
stuttered, unsure how to answer, which was highly uncommon, I was never at a loss for words especially when trying to calm a female, but they seemed to be in short supply now that I needed them most.

“
Draco, I don’t care that your father is rich, or how popular you are, and it wouldn’t matter to me if you had warts or were the hottest guy at school, because I don’t judge people on their looks or what other people say about them. I judge them on their actions and so far, I judge you to be a big jerk who has no manners and little respect for anyone but himself. Forgive me if my feelings were hurt by your thoughtless remarks, but I am sure as soon as I am out of your sight you will forget all about me. Guys like you usually don’t worry about someone else’s problems for long.”

The car stopped
before the guesthouse of my family’s property and she turned to the door on her side of the car as it opened. Henry took her hand to help her out of the car, wearing a smirk on his face that let me know he had heard our conversation. As he closed the door, I realized that she had quite thoroughly told me off, and I was stunned.
No one
spoke to me that way and I badly wanted a chance to respond, but I was already late to work and could not take the time to chase after her. So I let it go, for the moment.

***
Aurora
***

The next day as I counted off the steps to my locker, I wondered what I was going to say when I ran into Draco, which in my case might literally happen. I had spent the night trying to figure out why he had such a dislike for me when we had never met before. The day before I had heard many of the students discussing how upset Draco had been when he heard about my arrival. It seemed he had been against my joining their community and had been very vocal about it, so much so the rest of our peers knew exactly how he felt about me. It had been embarrassing to walk the halls and hear their whispered exchanges about how miserable my presence was making him, but I had forced myself to hold my head high and ignore their remarks. It wasn’t until the incident in the car that I lost the thin hold on my control, and finally went off. To hear him say something so callous at the idea of sharing a car with me had been too much. After all, who did he think he was? Yes, his father was rich and owned most of the town, but did that make him any better than me? Why would he care so much about one blind girl joining their little school? None of it made sense, none of it.

“Hey
, girl,” Belynda said next to me, catching me unawares. I had been so caught up in thought I had not even noticed her scent, which was a rare thing.

“Oh
, hey,” I said, closing my locker, turning towards the sound of her voice. “What’s up?”

“So
, a bunch of us want to have a little get-together to welcome you to Grayhurst this weekend,” she told me excitedly.

“Oh
, I don’t know.” I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but my life was very different from theirs. I couldn’t just go to a party like they could and although it sucked, I was used to it.

She put
her arm through mine and chuckled. “You don’t have to know. I will take care of everything, I promise.”

“It sounds great, really, but I can’t see and I don’t think dragging my father along will increase my popularity around here.”

“Are you kidding? You’re the most popular girl at the school right now. Everyone is so excited about this party.”

“Belynda
, I know, you don’t have to cover for him.” I wanted Draco’s dislike for me out in the open. It would make things easier if everyone wasn’t stepping on eggshells around me.

“Cover for who?” s
he asked, but I could tell she knew exactly whom I was talking about.

“Draco.
I know he hates that I moved here.”

“That’s silly. H
e never even met you before you moved to our town. Why would he not want you here?” she twittered nervously. “Now, forget about him and let’s get back to the party. You won’t need to bring your dad. I will be your seeing-eye person for the evening.”

“That’s great
, but who will protect her from you?” Ryan said, joining us as we walked down the hall.

“Fine then
, funny guy, you can be her guide and I will take care of everyone else,” she told him.

“No, he gets stuck with me every day here at school and I really don’t like parties
anyway,” I said, hoping she would take the hint and forget about it, but Ryan quickly cautioned me that would not be the case.

“She’s not letting this go
, and for the record, I don’t feel like I’m stuck with you. I enjoy spending time with beautiful females, of which you are one.”

He was so sweet and I was really growing to like his flirtatious personality. I didn’t take it seriously, but being blind had limited my expertise with member
s of the opposite sex. Most males my age weren’t willing to look past my disability to find the person within. I didn’t blame them, though; teenagers could be superficial and not too many wanted a blind girlfriend to drag around with them. “I will have to take your word on my looks. I have never seen what I look like,” I teased playfully, but my words were met with a silence that I had come to know meant they were experiencing a moment of sympathy for me. I knew I had to fix it quickly before our new friendship became uncomfortable. I had lost more than one person in my life when their feeling sorry for me had made it difficult for them to be around me and in this small setting, I didn’t want that to happen. “Guys, I’m alright with being blind. It doesn’t define me, and I don’t feel sorry for myself, so get over it.”

Belynda let out the breath
she had been holding and Ryan chuckled softly. “You’re really something else,” he said admiringly.

“Back to the party,” Belynda said
, ignoring my groan. “I will bring you home after school to do your hair and makeup beforehand and you can spend the night afterward.”

“I don’t know. M
y dad is not going to like me staying out overnight,” I explained, trying to squelch my excitement at the idea. Ever since I was little, I had wanted to have a sleepover but with my difficulties, most of my friend’s’ parents were not comfortable keeping me for an entire evening. Of course, my father had not been exactly thrilled with the idea either.

“I can convince him
, and Mr. Pendragon will vouch for me, please, please, please!” she begged.

“Fine, but it’
s up to you to clear it with my dad.” I knew she wasn’t going to give up until she got her way. Once you met Belynda you knew she was just the type of person who never let what she wanted go.

“Definitely!
Now, since Ryan is here, I need to go and get started, so I’ll see you later.” She let go of my arm and Ryan took hold of the other.

“But what about class?” I called out
.

“Yeah
, right,” she chuckled. “I have a party to plan, my education can wait another day.” The sound of her footsteps as she walked away filled the air and I knew the conversation was over.

“You have done it now!” Ryan said with a chuckle. “Once you
let her have her way, you are forever under her spell.”

“It’s just a small get-together right?” I asked naively.

“Uh, yeah
, I’m sure she’ll keep it small.”

I had the feeling he was lying to appease me, but I had committed to the party and knew I couldn’t back out. “Could you try to get her to keep it small?”

“That would be like trying to tame a tornado, but I will get Draco on my side, he will veto a large gathering and she will have to agree.”

I snorted
, which I knew was not very ladylike, but the idea of Draco wanting to make me happy was just too ridiculous. He had made it abundantly clear he did not want me around. I was sure he wasn’t going to be on my side about anything.

“What?” he asked as we took our seats in class.

“Nothing, it’s just Draco and I had some words yesterday, I don’t think he will really be very concerned about my feelings.”

He placed his hand over mine on the desk and patted it.
“You’re so wrong, but I suppose you haven’t been given any real reason to believe he cares about your feelings.”

“I heard
what the others were talking about yesterday. They said he was completely against me coming here, that he trashed the gym and destroyed his car when he found out.” I felt my eyes mist with tears I refused to shed. “I don’t understand why someone I have never met would dislike me so much. What have I done that would make him hate me?”

His body radiated a discomfort I could easily read.
“I am sure you misunderstood. Draco can be rather…well…difficult sometimes, but now that you are here, I am sure he will grow to love you.”

I somehow
doubted it, but the tears were welling in my eyes, threatening to fall, and I didn’t want to break down in the middle of class and embarrass myself, so I didn’t comment.

The rest of the day I kept my mouth shut about Draco
, content to just get on with acquainting myself with the school layout, but I felt him everywhere I went. His scent was present in the halls and in every classroom I entered and I could feel him close by, always near, but never approaching.

*****

A few days passed without a single word from Draco and although it upset me, I had begun to believe that maybe it was better that way. I didn’t want someone in my life that resented my very presence and I was content with the friends I’d made. At least that was what I told myself, but deep down I wanted more, I wanted him to like me, to hold my hand, and kiss me, as I’d dreamed each night since we met, which was ludicrous since he obviously didn’t even like me.

“Aurora
, are you ready for class?” a male voice next to me said interrupting my thoughts.

“Oh, yeah
, Soran, sorry, I was wool-gathering.” I smiled and felt him take my hand in his own. Soran was my chemistry partner, something I had apologized to him for my first day since I was not very much help. He had laughed and told me he was a control freak anyway so it was for the best and we had struck up a friendship. He had hinted too about wanting something more but I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, given the strong feelings I had for Draco.

“You were looking pretty intense there, you must have gathered enough to make a blanket,” he joked
, his finger stroking my palm.

“Hardly, but maybe enough to make you
a sweater,” I teased, a little intimidated by his intimate touch. His brand of flirting was more extreme than Ryan’s and it flustered me.

“
I’ll take anything you’ll give me,” he whispered in my ear, his free hand’s knuckles brushing my cheek as his sweet breath feathered my neck.

***
Draco
***

After a few days of self-imposed exile from my friends, who hovered around Aurora, escorting her to class, carrying her lunch tray, and just hanging out with her as I had asked them to do, I was ready to confront her and apologize for my rude behavior. I had done some soul-searching and come to the realization that although I was afraid to get to close to her, being distant was excruciating. Every time I saw Ryan holding her hand or one of the other guys guiding her to class I wanted to tell them to back off, but to so would be claiming her and I just wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment.

“You know
, you could just go and say hello. It isn’t like she is going to bite your head off,” Nate said as we stood across the hall from Aurora and her little entourage.

“She might, you didn’t hear he
r tell me off. It was brutal.” I cringed just remembering it. To my deep shame, my father had found out about it from Henry and he had applauded her actions, telling me it was about time I found out just what others outside of our circle would think of my behavior. With so many people recently pointing out my flaws, I was forced to take a long, hard look at myself and to my surprise I found that I didn’t like the arrogant, self-involved person I had grown to be. I wasn’t sure when I had turned into such snot-nosed, egotistical, bigheaded jerk, but I did know I had to change. Aurora had been dead right in her description about me and I owed her an apology, but I didn’t know how to go about it. I didn’t think I had ever apologized to anyone in my life.

At first
, I just watched her, looking for a clue how best to go about my apology. At least that was the excuse I used to placate myself, but as the days passed I found myself becoming more and more enchanted with her. I found myself looking for her everywhere I went. In the gardens at home, where she loved to sit after dinner at night. At school, where her soft, alluring laughter as she joked with my friends made my heart beat just a little faster. In my dreams at night, where we would lay in a field of flowers wrapped in each other’s arms, which was most disturbing since I didn’t do the hearts-and-flowers, mushy thing. My resolve to keep away from her slipped further and further away, everything she did fascinated me, from the way she ran her fingers through her hair when she was frustrated, to the little devilish grin she wore when she made some smart-ass comment when someone said or did something that had everyone feeling sorry for her. I had come to understand joking was her mechanism for dealing with her blindness. It put everyone around her at ease and stopped them from feeling bad for her. I came to understand from all of my close analysis that she was, as Ryan often said, truly amazing. The problem was, I didn’t want her to be. It made things difficult, made it harder to find reasons to stay away from her and the magic web she was weaving over everyone around me.

“Why don’t you just admit it
, you’re attracted to her,” Nate said with a smirk. “I can’t blame you. If I didn’t already know she was yours, I would be chasing her myself.” A snarl rose in my throat and I turned to face him, my hand reaching for his throat. Instead of being fearful though, he chuckled. “See, you may not be ready to admit it, but you’re well and truly on the line, all she has to do is reel you in.”

I didn’t choke him.
I wanted to, but I couldn’t. It was considered bad form in our community to hurt those who did not have the same fighting capabilities as we did and I was in enough hot water. I didn’t want to push my luck. “I am not a fish, and she does not have me on her line. I told you, I do not want to settle for one female, I have so much more life to live before I will be ready for that.”