The Queen's Flight (Emerging Queens) (3 page)

“That’s sad
,
” Viola said.

“You wouldn’t say that if you met her,” Carolyn said. “She killed my friend and she tried to kill me.”

Viola rested her head in her hands. “I’m not used to this crazy world.”

“It’ll get easier.” Carolyn punched Jack in the arm. “Especially if she has her stuff. We’ve got some time before the camera crews come investigating that possibility.”

“Oh all right,” Jack said. “But we need to make it quick or you’ll have to deal with Iron Ass.”

“Who’s Iron Ass?”

“Reed,” Carolyn said.

Chapter Four

The porch light went on as Viola’s mother flung open the door when the Harley pulled up beside the car. Viola climbed out and ran up the stairs to hug her. The slap jarred Viola’s head to the side, and she stumbled back. She would have fallen if Sergei hadn’t been there to grab her arm to steady her.

Attraction flared at the worst possible time. She hadn’t thought he was hot when he was with Smythe, but up close and personal, he was intimidating in a way that made her lady parts pay attention. She smiled up at him, but he was scowling at her mother. Oh yeah, that. Viola sighed.

“How dare you not call me and then show up here without any pants, with your druggie friends?” Her mother shook her fists then jammed them down on her hips.

“Ma, it’s not like that.” Viola rubbed her cheek where she was sure she had a red handprint.

“Get in the house. I’ll deal with you later.”

Viola stepped forward, but Sergei wouldn’t let go of her arm. “How old are you?” he asked.

“It doesn’t matter how old she is,” her mother snapped. “While she lives under my roof, she follows my rules.”

“It’s okay, Sergei. This isn’t unexpected.” Viola started back up the stairs, Sergei on her heels. “Ma, I can explain.”

“I’m not letting him in. Is he another one of your fix-it-up projects?” She turned on Sergei. “She doesn’t have any money, baldy. She lives with me because the last loser cleaned out her bank account after she bought him a crotch rocket. Then he dumped her for his ex-girlfriend. So let me save you the time. She’s broke. You got what you wanted from her. Now, get off my porch before I call the cops.”

“Ma, please.”
Is that a crack in the stairs? Maybe I can crawl inside it and die.
She peeked up at Sergei. He was expressionless—unless you looked into his eyes. Then you saw the dragon part of him being kept in check.

“I got a better idea.” Sergei shoved her mother back with a negligent flick of his palm. “I’m escorting the Queen inside while she packs her things, and then we’re leaving. If you get in my way, I will end you.”

“Sergei!” Viola swung her head toward him as he pulled her back up on the porch. He’d stood up for her. She resisted the urge to give him the world’s biggest hug. He didn’t look like he was a hugger.

“If you raise your hand to the Queen again, I will bite it off.” He leaned in and glared at her mother, who was bristling with rage.

Definitely not a hugger.

“Bite it off? Queen?” Her mother got very still.

“Oh, now you’ve done it.” Viola cringed.

“What’s he talking about? He better not be a dragon.” Her mother shook her fist.

Jack and Carolyn exited the car.

“What will the neighbors think?” Viola’s mom took a step back. Sergei used the motion to body check her farther into the house and yank Viola up along with him.

“They’re all asleep.” Although Viola did see the lights go on in Mr. Pixter’s yard down the street, and she was sure Mrs. Johnson next door was watching—unless there was something good on TV. Viola pounded up the stairs, with Sergei close behind her. Her mother followed more slowly.

Viola handed baskets of yarn to Sergei. “Would you bring these out to the car?”

“I’m not leaving you alone with that old harridan.”

“It’s okay. I’m used to it.”

She loaded Sergei up and watched him eyeball her mother out of the way.

“Why aren’t you wearing pants?”

Viola plucked at the T-shirt. “Right after you called, I transformed into a dragon.”

Her mother clutched at her heart and sagged against the door frame. Viola rolled her eyes at her theatrics. She crawled under the bed and pulled out three large plastic containers filled with yarn.

“My boss kept me trapped until Sergei and his friends rescued me not even a half hour ago.” Viola dusted off her hands. It was a good thing the yarn was covered. The dust bunnies were mounting an army under there.

“Get out. Get out of my house.” Her mother pointed to the door.

“I’m going.” Viola said “I couldn’t stay here anyway. The male dragons will try to capture me. I’m going somewhere safe.”

“Your father did this to you.”

“He was a dragon?” Viola cocked an eyebrow at her.

“Shut your filthy mouth.” Her mother advanced on her with her arm raised, but Sergei was suddenly there. He caught her mother’s arm and growled. She ripped out of his grasp.

Viola pretended that she was alone in the room. She wanted no part of this fight. When two dogs fought over a bone it never went well for the bone. Hopefully, they wouldn’t kill each other. Viola handed him the under-the-bed-boxes.

“There won’t be enough room for these in the car,” Sergei said.

“I’ll take my bike.”

Sergei shook his head. “Any dragon worth his salt can catch you on that thing. Pluck you right out of the air like a hawk would a field mouse.”

“What if I had the ’Busa?”

Sergei quirked a grin and Viola’s heart fluttered. He should do that more often. “You don’t. That’s my bike. And yes, even with that.”

“Damn,” Viola said and piled three more hanks on top of the containers. “Don’t drop them.”

“You better be dressed by the time I get back.” This time, Sergei hissed at her mother and she sprang away from him like a spooked cat.

“You father must have had a defective gene. We can cure you. There’s a group called Order of the Dragon Slayers—”

“I don’t want to be slain.” Grabbing some clothes, Viola ducked into the closet.

“Better dead than a monster.”

“Do you mean that? You want me dead?” She pulled off Jack’s T-shirt and got dressed. Viola knew she was a big disappointment to her mother. Her husband left her for a cute nurse. Her rebound boyfriend used her for a new bike. But at least, according to her mother, she hadn’t been a dragon. Sitting on her bed, she tugged on socks and sneakers. Viola risked a glance at her mother. “Isn’t that a little dramatic? I haven’t changed on the inside. I’m still me.”

“You look human,” her mother acknowledged. “Maybe they drugged you?”

“I have three heads.”

Her mother shook her head in frantic denial.

“I have a tail.”

“Shut up. This is nonsense.”

“And I have wings but I haven’t attempted flying yet. Does it feel like riding down the highway with the Harley full out?” Viola asked the question to Sergei, who had come back from dropping off her yarn.

She handed him two copier paper boxes and slid four tote bags over her arm.

“More yarn?” he asked.

“No, those are my needles and notions. I’ve got my WIPs.”

“Any chains in there?”

“Work in progress,” she said, peeking at him under the curtain of her eyelashes. The thought of Sergei with whips and chains was a little unsettling, more so than turning into a dragon. And that was saying something. Forcing those thoughts away with a delicious shiver, she turned to her mother. “You didn’t answer my question. Am I dead to you?”

“I don’t like dragons.” Her mother folded her arms and refused to look at her.

“Why? What did we ever do to you?” Sergei asked, juggling the load Viola handed him.

“My husband left me for one.” She sniffed and stared down her nose at him.

“What?” Viola said, almost dropping a skein of Italian cashmere. “That’s not what you told me.”

Her mother turned and walked down the stairs with the solemnity of a funeral procession.

“You said he ran off with his secretary.” Viola followed slowly, the news about her father stunning her. All these years, she figured he forgot he had a kid. Where was he now? Did he know she was a dragon all along?

Viola was back on the first floor when it hit her that she was leaving her mom’s house for good. “Oh crap, maybe I should pack clothes.”

“Which Queen?” Sergei asked her mother, taking the tote bags from Viola. “There were only five before Lerisse died.”

“I didn’t catch her name.”

“Why would a dragon want a human mate?” Viola said, still not going back upstairs.

“I don’t think they’re mated,” Sergei said. “Humans have their uses.”

“Listen to him. We humans have our uses.” Her mother gave an exaggerated finger quote over the last word.

Sergei snorted, then turned to Viola. “Weren’t you going to pack clothes?” When she ignored him, he cursed and pounded back up the stairs two at a time.

“He never came back,” her mother said. “I wouldn’t have taken him back, even if he did. Sleeping with a lizard. It’s disgusting.”

“Maybe he’s dead,” Viola said, wishing her mother would lower her voice or at least keep her bigoted opinions to herself. She opened the hall closet and took out a denim jacket. Her leather one was at work, still buried under her desk.

“He’s not. Every now and then I see him with her on television. She has a fief in Ireland.”

Viola heard a loud thump from upstairs. A commotion outside caught her attention, and she glanced out the window and saw a giant red dragon. Horns ringed his neck and bulky red plates of armor covered his entire body. He resembled Reed—a flying tank with teeth.
Holy Smokes.
That was a thousand-dollar photograph, if any of the neighbors were watching. Day-um, he was big.

“Get away from the window,” her mother shrieked. “The red ones breathe fire.”

“I think he’s with us,” Viola said. “I think that’s Jack.”

“Oh, it’s
us
now is it? Just like your father.”

“You told me he started a new family.” Viola turned away from the window to confront her mother with that lie. All this time, she thought her father was one kind of schmuck. Now that it turned out he had just been dragon-struck, she didn’t know if that made it better or worse. Would he want to see her now?

Her mother shrugged. “So she wasn’t his secretary. She was a venture capitalist that sank quite a bit of money into your father’s creations. He was a chemist, always dabbling in some potion or ointment. One day, he hit the goldmine and she whisked him off for an exclusive contract. It was her money that bought this house.”

Sergei came back with her carry-on luggage and pushed past them to the car. On the way, he gave Viola a glare that would curdle milk.

“So get out. You have your things,” her mother said, crossing her arms.

“Mom, I’m still me.”

“Go leech off your father for a change.”

“You know, maybe if you were a little more pleasant he would have stayed,” Viola said

“You’re dead to me.” Her mother pushed her out the door, but Viola was ready for it. “I’m ashamed of you.”

The slam of the door
whooshed
air against her back. It was probably for the best. Viola sighed. She couldn’t stop disappointing her mother, and her mother would never change. She turned her back on the house.

“Ah!” Viola screamed as she was suddenly face-to-head with the red dragon. Damn! His teeth were as long as her arm.

“Want me to burn the house down?” Jack’s voice grumbled out of the massive maw.

Tempting.
“No, I just want to go.”

“We have a problem,” Carolyn said.

Viola glanced over her shoulder at Sergei, who had walked the length of the driveway and stood there, fists clenched.

“I have to fly back to Connecticut,” Jack said.

“Why? Is another Queen in trouble?”

Carolyn laughed. “No, Jack’s the one in trouble. His fiancée saw you wearing his ‘Back off, I’m taken’ shirt and now he’s got some ’splainin’ to do.” She finished in a funny accent.

Viola wasn’t sure how a lizard the size of a bus could look sheepish, but he did.

“Normally, I’d have you ride on my back and put some distance between you and Smythe, but Arianna would freak if she saw that. Besides, you can shift and fly yourself. I probably won’t see you for a while, because you’re going to get very busy. Remember, not all studs are like Smythe.”

“Thanks, Jack, for everything.” Viola couldn’t figure out how to hug his head, so she patted his cheek instead.

“Get off of my lawn before I call the police!” Her mother shrieked from the inside.

Jack took off, his claws digging large, and probably unnecessary, holes in the front lawn. His massive flanks clenched and pushed him off into the sky. Great, bat-like wings stayed close to his body until he hit the right altitude and then his wingspan blotted out the moon. He banked and his tail pumped to give him more speed. He posed for a moment and then sped off.

“Show-off,” Carolyn said. “The Celtic dragons think they’re all that and a bag of chips.”

“I’m going to fly,” Viola marveled. “How do I shift into a dragon?”

“Eventually, you’ll be able to do it solely by thinking about it. But for right now, we’re going to take advantage of your emotions to give you extra power. Let’s try the same thing we did before. Can you think of something that makes you very happy?”

Viola glanced back at the house and saw the curtain flick closed. “Not right now.”

Carolyn gave her a comforting smile. “Okay, let’s do the opposite. Something that makes you mad.”

Viola smoothed a hand down her sleeve. “I’m going to shred my clothes and this is my favorite sweater. It took me three months to knit it.”

“It’s very pretty. The drape is very flattering.’

Viola preened. “I wanted it in blue, but—”

“Let’s go,” Sergei snarled. Carolyn winced and sighed. “He’s right. We’ll talk more at the safe house. Now, about your clothes, if you prepare yourself, you can save yourself a lot of embarrassment. When you transform into your dragon form, think about keeping the clothes somewhere safe. When you transform back to human, they’ll be there for you. It’s part of the magic.”

“So I think mean thoughts and picture my clothes going away, but somewhere accessible?”

Carolyn nodded.

Mean thoughts were easy. Viola had them on a daily basis.

“Don’t forget your clothes, they’re starting to stretch.”

OMG, not her sweater!

Viola pictured her knitted sweater. But she didn’t want to fold it and put it away. In her mind, she pictured unknitting it and rolling the yarn back up into a ball and stashing the ball in a pretty basket. She did the same for her jeans even though they were denim, not yarn, and sewn, not knitted. Knitted jeans…hmmm, maybe she should look into getting some skeins from recycled blue jeans.