The Queen's Flight (Emerging Queens) (17 page)

“With what money?” Viola swallowed back a snivel.

“Are you starting to freak out?” He peered into her eyes, even as she was blinking away the tears.

“Yes,” Viola said. “I’ve been very good up until now. Let me have my little freak-out time. There was some serious mojo working the weave at Cassandra’s castle. Carolyn thought it was a spell, but I think it was another Queen. An insanely powerful one. Is Nidhogg a Queen?”

“No.”

“I can’t connect with the big presence right now.” Viola searched inward for the blue light.

“Stop it,” he gritted out.

“I think she’s searching for me.” Viola gripped his shoulder.

“She’s going to have to wait until you’re stronger.”

“I am stronger. I need to get back into the land of the living. That steak sounded good. Do I have pants around here?” Viola climbed out of bed. The sooner she was back doing something, the sooner she’d feel better.

“Pants are overrated.” He lounged back in bed, naked. He stretched his arms over his head and rested his head on them.

“Sergei, I can’t go around wearing your shirts.” Viola stared, unabashed.

“Why not? We’re the only ones here. Besides, I prefer you naked.”

“I think I’m going crazy,” Viola said, her shoulders drooping.

“The feeling will pass. I didn’t buy you any clothes. But you can probably modify one of my shirts into an outfit using your magic.”

She considered it. “If you get the steaks started, I’ll see what I come up with. Where the hell are we anyway?”

“Vermont,” he said, getting off the bed. He didn’t bother magicking himself any clothes.

“Who knows we’re here?”

“No one. My official lair is in New Jersey. This is private property for acres. No one will find you.”

Viola couldn’t shake the haunted and hunted feelings that were coming over her.

“Are you okay?” Sergei asked.

Viola rubbed her face. “Yeah, the headache is agonizing and I’ve got a song stuck in my head.”
Help! I need somebody!

“I can help with that.” Sergei started to whistle “It’s a Small World After All” and went downstairs, smiling.

Chapter Eighteen

Viola went back into the bathroom for more meds as soon as Sergei left the room.

It’s a world of laughter…shithead.

When she closed the mirrored cabinet, she had to stifle a scream. A mini version of her heads in dragon form stared back at her.

“So I am going crazy?” she asked her reflection. Viola poked herself, but she was still human. She poked the glass. It was still a mini version of her dragon form.

“No one would blame you,” the white horse head said.

“You realize that the only difference between this farmhouse in Vermont and Smythe’s lair is it’s prettier,” the red goat head said.

“I am not trapped.” Viola pointed at the middle, violet head, who nodded her dragonly agreement. “I’m being protected. I can walk out the front door right now if I want.”

“Without pants?” Goat said.

Viola grabbed two towels and concentrated. In a moment she was wearing terry cloth shorts and a matching shirt.

“That’s hot.”

“You shut up,” Viola rattled four more aspirin in her hand. “I am happy. I have a sexy man who doesn’t want me to buy him an education or a Harley Davidson. In fact, I bet he has a whole warehouse full of them.” She swallowed down the chalky tablets, scooping up water from the faucet with her hand.

“So you have to ask yourself, doll, what
does
he want from you?” Goat tried to butt the mirror.

“It’s not like that,” Viola moved back from the goat’s horns even though it didn’t come through the mirror. “It’s a little sudden and soon, but I like him and I think he likes me.”

“Did he say that?”

“He bought me a spinning wheel, goats, and animals. He brought me to his lair.”

Goat narrowed her eyes at her. “Tendresse means fondness. I looked it up.”

“Where? There are no dictionaries in my head!”

“What she means to say”—Horse broke in, her mane flowing as she spoke—“is that Sergei is being a little heavy handed with telling you what to do. Perhaps you should assert yourself. You should have a career.”

“I had a career,” Viola said. “It sucked.” She couldn’t believe she was arguing with a mirror.

“You had a job,” Horse returned smoothly. “Now, you have a chance to do something important. You can find the lost Queens. Stop them from suffering and bring them into the weave with the rest of our sisters.”

“Sure, I can do both. I can start dragon babies with Sergei while showing the embassy where to find…wait…did I say dragon babies?” Viola clutched her stomach. “How does that even happen?”

“Do you see how much you don’t know?” Goat said. “You’re in over your head. Sergei is only going to tell you the bare minimum. The better to control you.”

“That’s not fair. I’m not listening to you anymore.” Viola stormed out of the bathroom and followed her nose toward the searing smell of meat.

She felt a little less spacey and hysterical after her third steak. She eschewed the wine for about a gallon of water because her mouth felt stuffed with cotton. Sergei sat across from her at the table. He was shirtless and she distracted herself in between bites, but enjoying the view.

“So I was wondering. Where does the money for all this come from?” Viola waved her hand around.

“I’m a day trader,” he deadpanned.

“You’re shitting me, right?”

“Yes. I’m older than dirt. I have large amounts of wealth amassed.”

“Do you have, like, a cave filled with gold doubloons?”

“Why, you want to do a little D&D role playing?”

“D&D? Is that like S&M?”

“It could be.”

“So I don’t have to work?” Viola tested the question, wondering if her fears that he wanted her only to be barefoot and pregnant were true or if it was just her insecurity, aka Goat and Horse, trying to ruin a good thing.

“You want to go back to Talon Industries?” Sergei shoveled more steak in his mouth and chewed with relish.

“No, I was thinking of making homemade soaps from the goat milk and spinning my own yarn. Maybe I’ll get a stand at a craft fair.” That had been a dream of hers for so long it seemed that another person had dreamt it.

He frowned. “Seems a lot of work for a little reward.”

“It’s not work, it’s fun.” She tried not to be defensive, so she settled on frowning at him and drinking her water.

“How much money do you think you can make?”

“I don’t know a couple of hundred dollars a week— maybe.”

He snorted. “Chump change. It’s not worth the risk of exposure. If they were dragon-made soaps, you could sell them for a $100 each.”

“Sergei, no one is going to pay a $100 for a bar of soap. Not unless it’s made out of marijuana.” Viola hated that he made sense. It would have been so much easier if he started throwing his weight around, like all of her other exes. Then she’d know how to deal with him. It shouldn’t be so hard to trust when someone was being decent to you.

“I wouldn’t recommend growing a stash, even though we have the land for it. Reed might get his tail in a knot.”

“So I’d be able to do a craft stand?” She waited for him to shoot her down.

“If you feel you have to. Keep in mind I’ll be sitting next to you, bitching about it constantly.”

“You can stay home.”

He raised his hand. “Protector and consort. Doesn’t work that way.”

“What if I wanted to do something with more impact?”

“You want me to buy more alpacas?”

“Can you?” Viola leaned forward eagerly. “It’s not that I don’t love the ones you got me, but if you could buy a light silver-gray one? I could make you a one-of-a-kind, hand-knitted sweater. It would keep you warm in the winter.”

“I’ve got you for that.”

She pouted.

“No problem. I’ll ask the breeder that I got those guys from.”

“I feel a little like a mooch.” Those Alpacas cost over a month’s salary for her.

“You are my Queen. It’s my duty to provide for you. Normally, the Queen’s purse is split among the other studs, but since there will be no other studs I’m happy to take up the slack.”

“So I’m sensing this is like Christmas? Do I make a list?”

“Why don’t you sit on my lap and tell me what you want?”

Viola pushed away from the table and slinked over to him.

“What the hell are you wearing?” He opened his arms for her and she settled in.

“Towels. The first thing you’re getting me is a laptop and a wireless internet connection so I can get some real clothes.”

“You can use your magic to wear anything you want,” he said.

Viola straddled him and lifted her shirt over her head, tossing it aside.

He shut up.

“And a smart phone—but not too smart. I don’t want the phone to be more intelligent than me.”

“Mmmm,” Sergei said, vanishing his pants so the only thing between them was the terry-cloth shorts.

Viola scrunched up her face and willed the stupid things away. The hot press of his flesh told her she was successful.

“Very good,” Sergei said. “Extremely good, in fact.”

He rubbed his cheek over her breasts, his hand clamped on her ass. Tracing his tongue over her nipples, he captured one with a loud sucking sound.

“Oh,” she whispered, tilting her head back. “Sergei, do you like me?”

“Yes,” he muttered around her breasts. “I like every inch of you.”

“Told you so,” she thought to her goat head with a hint of smugness.

Don’t you feel a little like a whore?

Viola sighed. “A little.”

Sergei put his forehead on hers. “What’s the matter?”

“I want to fuck you without all the voices in my head.”

To give him credit, he didn’t blink. “How many voices do you have in there?”

“Right now, just the bitchy red one that sounds like my mother.”

“Well, there goes a perfectly good hard-on,” he said, quirking a grin.

Viola took a deep breath. “I want to help Reed and the embassy find the other Queens.”

She felt him tense under her. “You are helping them. Under
safe
circumstances.” His calm tone belied the strong emotion she could feel under his skin.

“It feels like a cop out. Like I should be doing more.” Viola needed to convince him that she needed to be useful. She couldn’t just lie back and take things. She knew what it was like to be on the other end of that type of relationship, and it was soul crushing.

“How’s your head?” he asked, running a concerned hand over her forehead.

Viola rubbed her temples. “The headache is gone.”

“You were bleeding from your eyeballs. You were unconscious for three days.”

Viola didn’t remember any of that. It sure didn’t sound good. But how many other Queens suffered worse? “I’ll be careful.”

“How?” he asked, his hands back on her shoulders. If he shook her again, she was going to bite his nose.

“I’ll get better with practice.” Viola couldn’t meet his gaze.

“Are you sure about that?”

She nodded.

“Give yourself time to rest and to get settled in your life. Then we can talk about it more next week.”

“Next week?” Viola said. It sounded reasonable. She was distracted by his hands pushing her hair off her shoulder.

The glimmer in his eyes made her squirm on his lap and when his mouth locked on her neck, she bucked and writhed until he was inside her.

He filled her.

Viola moaned at their joining. His strong arms wrapped around her possessively. There was nothing more important than this feeling of connection. She held on to his shoulders and leaned her cheek on his head. There were no voices in her head, only her sighs of pleasure and his gasps of approval that vibrated against her throat. She gripped him so he was nestled deep inside her core.

Sergei bit her neck until it was throbbing in time with her clit. Kissing down to her breasts, he then worshipped them. Viola leaned back and sent the dishes flying off the table. Sergei stood up and laid her down on it. He bent her knees, taking her deeper. Her fingers dug into his arms as they braced against the table and he took her with a swift fury that reduced her to monosyllables of delight. Whipping her head back and forth, she lived for the driving pleasure of his body and was soon quivering around him.

“Mine,” he ground out, swiveling his hips so he rubbed her folds as he thrust himself faster.

She watched him in awe.

He was the most powerful, beautiful thing she’d ever seen. Her arms held on to the table as he slid in and out of her body with the precision of a machine. He focused on her chest, where her breasts bounced energetically to his enthusiastic strokes. Teasing him, she cradled them, playing with her nipples as he watched. Pounding into her now, Sergei was grinning. He threw his head back and roared loud enough to shake the house and scare the sheep.

She floated along on the bliss, her nerve endings still sensitive to his touch as he stroked them both back to normal breathing. Her legs clamped around his waist as he carried her back upstairs to bed. She could enjoy this peace, allow herself to believe these feelings were real and not because she was a dragon Queen and he was a dragon stud. She was Viola and he was Sergei.

Tumbling them into bed, Sergei kissed her temple.

“You need rest. I’ll take care of you.”

It was impossible not to melt into his arms, so she did and allowed herself to drift off. But the weave would be waiting for her as soon as she let her guard down.

Chapter Nineteen

Viola stared out the front porch, not seeing her farm. She saw a trapped Queen staring up at her from the bottom of a pit à la
Silence of the Lambs
. Blinking away the image, Viola stared out at the alpacas.

Good to his word, Sergei had gotten her the silver-gray, and she was more of a queen than Viola was. She was able to smile at her antics before Margery’s plight superimposed over her vision.

Help me.

None of the other Queens, including Carolyn, could sense Margery. They couldn’t even sense each other unless they were in the same room. Carolyn had a theory that Viola could tap into the weave better than the rest of them because she was used to dealing with tangled threads. And that’s what the weave seemed like sometimes, a snarled hank of yarn that needed to be rewound.

Margery was being kept in the pit until someone arrived. It was too deep for her to fly out and too slick to climb out. She was slowly dying without the sun. All Viola could tell was Margery was in New England. So close, yet too far away.

Viola felt Sergei at her back, his heat bleeding into her and casting out the chill of the pit. Leaning, she let her head fall back on his chest as he wrapped his arms around her. She touched her face to make sure there wasn’t any blood. He’d be pissed, and she didn’t want to deal with his over-protectiveness right now.

Guilt burned into her like the sun. Because going into the weave to help Margery wasn’t the only secret she was keeping from him. Viola was late. And not for a very important date. If she thought she could get away with buying a pregnancy kit without Sergei seeing it, she would have confirmed what she pretty much already knew.

“I have to tell you something,” she said, staring out into the front lawn even as the sheep backed away from Sergei’s presence.

“Tell me later,” he said. “You’re so beautiful standing there.”

Sliding his hands up her dress, Sergei’s quick intake of breath made her smile.

“You’re not wearing any panties.”

“Lately, they just get in the way,” Viola said, anticipation coursing through her as her heart stuttered when he leaned in. She loved the way he smelled, like leather and safety. Laughing up at him, Viola hugged his arms that were wrapped around her.

His erection was hot pressed into her back, and the last vestiges of Margery faded away. Peace flooded through her, almost as strong as her desire. He lifted the dress over her head and tossed it as she turned in his arms. He was naked, too. She reached for him, but he crushed her to his chest.

He kissed her with a desperation that worried her.

“Sergei?” she broke free. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Good,” he said, pressing kisses to her neck and shoulders.

In turn, her fingers held on to his chiseled biceps as if she was afraid he was going to fly away. It had never felt this right, this idyllic. Something was going to fuck this up, she could feel it. If she told him what she suspected, would the passion between them cool off? It was hard to believe he was using her to get a brood, like Turk used her for a motorcycle or her ex-husband used her for a doormat.

Sergei is different.

Then why won’t he let you search for the Queens?

Because he’s worried about me?

Then why did you go behind his back and call in the cavalry?

Viola broke away from the soul-drugging kisses, wrenching herself out of his arms.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, as she conjured back the sundress she’d been wearing.

“Carolyn and Reed are on their way here.” She avoided his glare by staring at the ladybug crawling on the porch.

He pressed the heel of his hand to his forehead. “Viola, I trusted you with the computer so you could order your things. I didn’t expect you to make our address common knowledge.”

“It’s not like I posted it on Facebook,” Viola said, hands on her hips. “If you can’t trust the head of our embassy, who can we trust?”

Sergei pursed his lips. “I didn’t want to tell you this, but there was an assassination attempt on Cassandra. There are a lot of angry studs out there. She was able to put down the rebellion and kill her attackers. You don’t have her centuries of fighting or a staff of loyal studs. You’ve got me and that’s it.”

“And the other Queens. Sergei, they’re in my head. Margery needs me, and I’m the only one who can find her.” She put her dress on and tugged it down.

“We gave Reed the information all that we could. You are not expendable.”

“Neither is Margery,” Viola twisted her hands together. She didn’t want this fight, but something had changed inside her when the weave communicated with her in Cassandra’s castle. It compelled her so she had to help the other Queens. “I’m going after her.”

“No, you’re not.” Sergei set his jaw.

“I’m a prisoner here, then?”

“Of course not,” he exploded. “How can you say that to
me
of all people? Have you been forced or abused?”

Viola covered her face. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?” He was shouting at her now. “I have given you everything, and you tell me you think I’m your jailor? I am your consort. I am your Protector. Everything I’ve done is in your best interest.”

“I know,” she said, needing to hold him, but he flung her off of him. “Sergei, listen to me. You don’t know what it’s like to have these women—these Queens in my head. They haunt me. I know I can save them, and the more I sit here in my idyllic perfect life, the more I hate myself.”

“And that’s my fault?”

“No. But why won’t you go with me to find them?” Viola implored him.

“You’ll get hurt. You hurt yourself every time you listen to them. One of these days you will sink into the weave and never come out again.” Sergei stormed into the front yard. The sheep ran for dear life.

“Sergei.” She sighed. “You’re being irrational.”

He barked out a short laugh that held no humor in it. “You have no idea how rational I’m being.”

“You’ve made me happier than anyone ever has. If the lost Queens weren’t a factor, this would be paradise.” Viola threw her arms wide to encompass everything from the terrified sheep to the farmhouse.

“Viola,” he said, in an even, calm voice that belied his clenched fists. “You are the only Queen I’ve ever served willingly. I am doing the best that I can. Stay with me a few more weeks. Get stronger. Time is so precious. Let’s not waste it fighting.”

Heat flared through her. She would always want him with an all compelling passion. She could so easily throw herself back into his arms and have him make love to her until she was too exhausted to think. But the Queens would come to her in her dreams.

“I can’t sleep anymore”—she ran a hand down her face—“You don’t know what it’s like. I see them constantly. I’ll go insane if I don’t help them.”

“You’re not ready,” he insisted. “I cannot let you go off untrained on wild goose chases. I’m good, but I’m not infallible.”

“I can be trained on the way.”

“You were a secretary and an artist. You’re not a commando. We’re talking weeks of training, if not months. I can train you. We’ll start tomorrow.”

Viola reared back, the contempt in his voice burned her. “First of all, I was an administrative assistant, and if you think attempting to second-guess Smythe is a cakewalk, you’re narrow minded. I didn’t grow up with Cassandra’s foot on my neck, but that doesn’t mean I was born yesterday.”

“You got screwed out of your 401K by a thug who calls himself Turk, and your husband took you for a ride.”

Now, it was getting ugly. “So, I’ve got shitty taste in men,” she ground out.

Sergei glared up at the sky. “Great. Perfect timing.”

“Are they coming?”

“You can’t even smell them. How are you going to know if there are studs waiting to attack you?”

Viola reached for the weave and found Carolyn’s life force strong and incoming. She sent her a warning that she and Sergei were having an unholy fight. However, at Carolyn’s panicked response, Viola realized she thought it was a physical one.

“Wait!” she screamed as Reed dove down like a black fighter jet. “We’re just arguing.”

Sergei met him in the air with teeth and claws, but both were keeping their poison at bay.

“Stay back,” Reed roared at Carolyn, who dodged past the combatants and landed next to Viola.

The animals ran for cover.

“You set him on me,” Sergei accused over his shoulder as the two dragons clenched each other and rolled. Reed, being larger had the advantage, but he was being careful to avoid and block the poisoned tip of Sergei’s tail.

“No,” Viola cried, shifting. “It wasn’t like that.”

The four of them were in the air then, dodging and circling. “I don’t want to fight you here,” Reed said. “We’re risking the Queens’ safety.”

“Sergei, I order you to stand down,” Viola shouted.

The bites and claws stilled as the others regarded her with varying degrees of disbelief.

“Is that an order?” Sergei said.

“How does it feel not to have free will?” Viola said, surprised at the bitterness that came out of her.

“It’s not something I ever thought to feel again from a Queen.”

Viola broke out in a cold sweat. This was so wrong. It was like a train wreck. She couldn’t look away. She couldn’t stop it. “Sergei, this is so fucked up. We can talk about it.”

“Are you going to give me another order?”

“No. I just didn’t want you to hurt anyone.”

“He wouldn’t have,” Reed said, baring his teeth at Sergei.

“Are you her Protector now?” Sergei asked.

“Am I?” Reed asked Viola.

“No,” Viola cried, shocked. “Sergei is my Protector.”

“What if I no longer want to be,” he said. “I’m obviously not what you want.”

“Even though we don’t see eye to eye on finding the missing Queens does not mean that I don’t still care for you or need you.”

“Save it. I should have known better. I respectfully request to be released from your court.”

Carolyn gaped at him. Reed frowned. Viola staggered back.

“You’d leave me alone?” Viola said in a small voice.

He got what he wanted.

Viola covered her stomach protectively. He shouldn’t go without knowing. But if she told him, he would stay and things would be too messed up. If she thought he was protective now…

“If you’re going to risk yourself without a thought for my feelings, we have nothing further to say.”

“That makes no sense,” she screamed. “If you want me safe, be with me.”

“Is that an order, my Queen?”

“No,” Viola said. “Go.”
Go like all the others.

“If I go, I will not be back. The farm is yours. I won’t share you with another stud.”

“I don’t want another stud. I want you,” Viola pleaded with him. “Don’t do this.”

“You can have me. All you have to do is give up on this idea of putting yourself in danger.”

“Margery’s time is running out. I’m afraid that someone is going to kill her or take her somewhere I can’t follow.”

“Why does it always have to be your way?” Sergei asked, shaking his head.

“Why does it always have to be yours?” Viola turned back into her human form. Surely Sergei could see beyond his hatred for Queens that Margery was human like Viola had been.

“I was wrong,” he shook his head. “I thought I could bear to be with a Queen.”

“Don’t color me with the same brush as Cassandra because I don’t want to be treated like I’m made of glass.” Viola shook her fist at him.

“You don’t get it. I can’t bend. I’ll break.” He backwinged higher, distancing himself from her. “I do not think we’ll see each other again,” he said.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because, we have no future. I was a fool to think I could buck fate. Reed, she is yours to protect. If something happens to her, I will end you.” He flew away.