The Queen's Dance (Emerging Queens) (19 page)

His opponent’s mouth opened wide as he fought for air. Too bad Rathin was a naga and could breathe underwater, otherwise the fight would have been over in a matter of seconds.

Rathin struggled, but that only allowed Remy to tighten his hold. He added a few head butts for good measure, denting in Rathin’s face.

After reeling from a couple of blows, the naga’s flailing slowed. Remy wanted to gut him, fill his body with stone, and let him die on the floor of the lake.

It would be justice.

Instead, Remy hauled Rathin back into the boat just as Reed flew overhead. Reed took the unconscious naga in his claws and flew off with him back to New York.

“Sometimes death is too quick to be a consequence,” he sent back to his mother.

Her disapproval thrummed through the waters.

So be it.

Chapter Twenty

A few weeks after rescuing Lisa, Margery got word that Smythe was getting off with just a financial sanction. She called Reed to complain as she sat on Remy’s dock watching the workers building defenses. She didn’t want to think that she would always have to prepare for an attack for exposing his BabyDragon operation—it wasn’t how she wanted to live her life, but she didn’t trust Smythe. He hadn’t emerged from his lair during this whole situation. The better to claim plausible deniability. But she had a gut feeling he wasn’t done, and she’d made a vicious enemy out of him.

“He just allowed the dolls to be used for smuggling the drugs,” Reed said. “And since Cassandra is dead, she can’t claim damages against him.”

Margery locked gazes with Remy. She’d sworn not to reveal that Nessie was alive or her part in all of this. But damn it, Nessie was the only one who had a grievance against Smythe, and since she chose to keep her location a secret, it looked like Smythe would be getting off scot-free.

“Rathin is imprisoned for distributing the pills and endangering humans,” Reed went on. “His treasury will pay damages to the victims’ families.”

“Most of them didn’t have families,” she said. “This blows.”

“You could order them both killed,” Reed said impassively in the phone. “They claim they weren’t behind the Smooshie bomb that nearly killed you. You don’t have to believe them.”

Unfortunately, they weren’t responsible for the doll. And even if she could live with ordering their executions, that would mean she’d have to send Remy and Casimiro after them. She wouldn’t endanger their lives. She wouldn’t hire an assassin, either. And the Order of the Dragon Slayers walked too fine a line for her to fully trust them.

“I’m sorry it’s not the solution you wanted,” Reed said. “Perhaps you’ll reconsider publishing any more articles.”

For a moment, she wondered if Reed was intimating that if she dropped her new dragon correspondent position he would take Smythe out. “Not a chance.”

“Well, then, congratulations on your first front-page news story.”

“Thanks.” She hung up on him.
Jerk.

“Look at it this way,” Remy said. “With Nessie tightening up her security, only qualified women will get the drug. No one else is going to die.”

“Smythe should get more than a slap on the wrist for his part in those women’s deaths. I’m also afraid he’s going to find out Lane narced on him, and Bella might get hurt in the cross fire.”

“Order me to do as you will.” Remy bowed his head.

She was so lucky to have him. “You’ve been so supportive of me.”

He shrugged. “It’s my job.”

After Reed had taken care of Rathin, Remy had come back to the cabin to find Lisa and Margery enthralled by Casimiro crooning Spanish love songs to them. She was relieved when Remy showed remarkable restraint with Casimiro by not chucking him into Lake Champlain. It paid off when Lisa agreed to fly on Casimiro’s back to Reed’s compound so they could check on the baby.

“I think Casimiro’s smitten,” Remy had said.

She watched them fly off and shook her head. “She’s too human.”

He had entangled his fingers with hers. “If she can give him a family, it might not matter. Does that bother you?”

She hadn’t answered him, because it did, a little. After Casimiro risked his life to protect her on the roof, things had changed between them. He’d stopped flirting and stopped antagonizing Remy—which was a good thing. It could be that he saw she was serious about having Remy as her consort, or it could have been just Cas being fickle with his affections. It didn’t hurt, but it did leave her wondering if she’d disappointed him as a Queen.

Spending these past two weeks with Remy, however, she realized Casimiro had never made her feel as cherished or comfortable as Remy did. Remy was her heart and her future. So instead of ordering him to kill Smythe for her, she had a better command.

“Take me to bed and make me forget all about this.”

“As my Queen commands.”

Margery linked her arm through his as they walked back to his cabin. She nodded at the sentries watching for intruders and felt safe. They were officially her protectors, but she wasn’t going to have a formal court. Remy could handle things. Rathin had been very vocal about the abuse Remy had put him through, and because of it, she hadn’t had any other attacks or kidnapping attempts.

However, the weird videos kept coming via email. It was a different email address each time, but each one showed a place where she’d recently been. Remy didn’t like it, but Reed couldn’t trace it back and thought it was just a groupie or a harmless stalker. Might not even be a dragon. Margery wasn’t convinced.

After seeing Lisa settled, Casimiro returned to touring for his new album, but true to his word, he sent workers to start building Margery’s castle.

Her article in the
Times
was a hit, and she already had a contract to do a weekly column on the dragon world. Her first series was going to revolve around the emerging Queens. She hoped to do a story featuring each of them. She already had interest from publishers to make it into a book, but wasn’t sure if she was ready to go that route. Margery had a feeling after she talked to the Queens, there would be more stories. But she promised Remy she’d keep a low profile on the hard-hitting articles. At least until the castle was built.

He didn’t like it, of course. But she told him that was how it had to be, and for now, they had an uneasy truce about it.

When the cabin door closed behind them, Remy pushed her up against it. “You’re thinking too much again.”

She rubbed her hands over his arms, inhaling his scent. It was the intoxicating smell of a lake breeze with exotic hints of the ocean. “Take off your clothes.”

He vanished them. “Your turn.”

“Rip them off me,” she said and then gave a little giggle as he tore her shirt open.

“Like that?”

She nodded as he shredded her bra. Her pants were next, and then he slowly peeled her underwear off her hips, licking all around her waist. Placing her legs over his shoulders, he lifted her off her feet.

Margery shrieked, and she clutched his hair for balance as he stood up. But then his tongue penetrated her, and she held on to the ceiling for support as she rode his face. His arms cradled her ass and kept her open and steady while he licked her. Each thrust and flicker of his tongue pushed her closer. She hooked her legs under his elbows. It felt like she was flying. They had to try this outside next time. Although she was happy to have the ceiling for balance, because the sweet torture of his tongue made her dizzy.

“More,” she groaned. “More.”

He relentlessly tongued her to a thrilling orgasm. Her thighs trembled against his cheeks, and he moaned in approval when she soaked his face.

Breathing in short, ragged gasps, she could only beg when he started up again. “Remy, please.”

He walked her to the bathroom, ducking so she wouldn’t hit her head on the doorframe. Each thrust of his tongue made her cry in soft sobs of pleasure; her whole body was so sensitive to the touch that she quivered in his arms. Pressing her back against the bathroom wall, he turned on his shower and adjusted the heat setting.

“W-what are you doing?” she asked.

He set her down in the shower. The water felt good, but not as good as he did. “I’m going to fuck you,” he promised. And then the water was pounding at her breasts and between her legs. She could barely stand up as Remy waved his hands like a conductor directing an orchestra and made the water crash over her most sensitive spots. He stepped in and pushed her to her knees. The water cushioned the hard tile.

Margery stroked his cock and looked up at him. He was controlling the water that was pulsing into her and pulling on her nipples like a mouth. “Do you like what I’m doing?” He groaned as she licked him from the soft sac of his balls to the top of his cock.

“Oh, yes,” she whispered, and he pushed himself into her mouth.

“Show me,” he said and held her head to him while she lavished all the attention he’d given to her pussy on his cock.

The water penetrated her, made love to her, and then split off so it was also stroking her clit.

“Mmm,” she moaned, sucking him deep into her throat. She bounced on the water. It wasn’t enough.

“I want you,” she whispered, sliding him out before sliding down on him again.

“As my Queen commands.”

Remy lifted her up, wrapped her shaking legs around his waist.

She pushed her hair out of her eyes and guided his thick cock inside her. “Yes,” she gritted out. He took her against the shower wall, sucking on her neck and groaning in her ear. The water now shackled her wrists above her head. She was helpless to move away, not that she wanted to.

“You are so damn wet and tight.”

Margery just hung on while he pounded her closer to another delicious orgasm. “I want you. I’ll always want you.”

He grunted and picked up his pace. “I’ll always be right here.” He slammed deep. “Right fucking here.”

Margery tried to breathe, but looking into his intense eyes, she realized breathing was overrated. “I want to come kissing you.”

He came first, roaring into her mouth. Hips flexing deep, he kept at it until she followed moments later, roaring back at him.

“My mate. My Queen.” He kissed her forehead and then carried her to bed.

Chapter Twenty-One

Margery was sitting by the dock outside Remy’s house, doing the final proof of the article on Carolyn and drinking a steaming mug of tea, when her phone rang. Carolyn had kept her up half the night chewing her ear off and making sure she included her top ten favorite books in the article. Carolyn kept changing her mind, though, on what books to list and in what order.

Not recognizing the number, Margery let it go to voicemail. It rang again. And again. Now, she started to get worried.

“Hello?”

“Margery, it’s me, Carla.”

She closed her eyes. She probably should have been expecting this, since she’d never called her after that last obnoxious email. “Are you all right?” Margery asked, because she sounded a little frantic and out of breath.

“I need to see you.”

Yeah, for a thousand-dollar photograph.
It hurt Margery to have to say this to her baby sister. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I’m pregnant.”

Margery opened her eyes and sat up straighter in her chair. “What?” Her boyfriend had knocked her up that quick? She couldn’t imagine her sister taking care of a houseplant, let alone a baby.

“I took a pill and went with a dragon. But I didn’t like him, so I ran away.”

Jaw dropping, Margery literally saw red. From the middle of the lake, Remy started swimming in. She could see the ripples he was making in the water. He must have sensed her outrage.

“Is this a con?” she asked. “Because if you just want to shake me down for money…”

“No, jeez. I thought I could come to you for help. Forget it.”

The next second, shame replaced her anger. This was her baby sister, and she really should give her the benefit of the doubt. Even if that made her a mark. “No, wait,” Margery said. “Tell me where you are and I’ll come get you.”

“I’m home,” she said. “Where else would I be?”

Home. Margery had sworn she’d never go back there. “Are you alone?”

“Yeah, Joe’s at work.”

“He has a job?” Margery asked. She was surprised her stepfather had gotten off his ass. Maybe he’d gotten arrested for drunk and disorderly and the court had ordered him.

“In a garage.”

Sounded like a nine-to-five job. She should be able to fly there, pick up Carla, and fly back before he knew it, and before a mob could form for pictures. If worst came to worst, and Carla was hustling her for a picture, they could get one of her flying away. But if her sister really was telling the truth, Margery couldn’t risk that she wasn’t compatible with the BabyDragon pill. She’d bring Carla back here and see if Joe and their mother had done irrevocable damage or if Carla could rise above her upbringing and stop stealing and hustling. Then she’d contact Nessie for help. “Okay, I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Margery emailed the article off to her editor and walked out to the end of the dock. “Remy?” she called.

He was already there. He popped his head out of the water. “What’s up?” he asked, not bothering to switch forms.

“My sister just called. She claims to be pregnant by a dragon. I told her I’d come pick her up.”

“You don’t sound convinced.”

Margery folded her arms and grimaced. “I told you, she’s a grifter. She’s into all sorts of confidence schemes. I don’t trust her not to be making this up for a shit ton of money.”

“So don’t go.”

“She’s my only sister. And I left her behind once. I don’t think I could live with myself if I did again.”

Remy leaped up onto the dock in his human form. “Are we driving or flying?”

“It’ll be quicker to fly, but it’s on Long Island, so we could drive. Still, I’d rather get in and out quickly to avoid her father.” And any crazies with a cell phone or a camera.

“Leave a message with Arianna to let her know we’ll be in her territory helping out another BabyDragon victim.”

“I don’t want to rile up Reed if this turns out to be fake.”

“Better safe than sorry.” Remy kissed her cheek. “I’ll be right back. I need to grab some things from the cabin.”

She gaped after him for a moment. He hadn’t even tried to talk her out of it. He hated to leave his territory, and for him to blithely agree to fly in her claws while they tracked down her sister made her love him all the more. Unlike Casimiro, he didn’t want her to be something she wasn’t. He would have loved her as a human as much as he loved her as a dragon. And even if the Queens’ conclave told her she had to move, Remy would be at her side.

“You are my world,” he had said. And she believed him.

About twenty minutes later, they were off. Margery held Remy in one of her claws. Flying was freedom. Oh, how she’d missed it! She was so glad that her powers had come back. If she lost the sky, she would have been miserable. Though she’d spent her entire life preshift unable to soar on the wind, it had always been a part of her.

The sun played hide-and-seek with the dark clouds moving in. They might be flying back in a rainstorm, but even getting drenched didn’t bother her. She tilted her wing into a steep dive and then cut up at the last minute to take advantage of the thermal. Second nature to conserve the energy.

Remy whooped like a child on a roller coaster, so she darted in and out of the clouds, doing loops and barrel rolls. “Stop. I’m going to puke,” he laughed.

“Good. Me, too,” she said, turning her face to the sun.

And that’s when she saw the dragons out of the corner of her eye. She faded up into the clouds, for a better look.

I’m invisible.

But they were coming straight at her hiding spot.

“I don’t like the look of this,” she said. There was a Chinese dragon, a Celtic dragon, and a chimera. “How are they finding me?”

“Me,” he said. “You can fade into the clouds, but my human shape in the sky is a dead giveaway.”

Margery sped through a cumulus cloud formation, hoping the puffiness would cloak Remy in her claws. It worked for a minute, but then the big Celtic just plowed through.

“Shit.” Margery dived and just managed to escape the Chinese dragon. What the hell was going on here? Was this retaliation about the article? She gritted her teeth and flew higher toward the sun. She wasn’t in human form. If they wanted to take her, they were going to have to work for it.

“Leave me alone,” she shouted to them. “I have a consort and a protector.”

The three dragons didn’t answer. She put on the speed, but they followed. Worse, they were gaining on her.

“Fly out over the water and drop me. Then hide in the clouds.” Remy said.

“No, I’m going to land. They won’t dare try to take me in public.”

“Don’t bet on that.”

She whirled and caught her pursuers unaware. Dropping like a stone to give herself more speed, she tucked her wings and positioned herself as aerodynamically as she could. She wasn’t expecting the breath weapon from the Celtic dragon, though.

An arc of lightning hit her in the back, and she reflexively opened her claws. As the second bolt hit her, agony raced up and down her spine. She almost didn’t feel the weighted net engulf her.

Remy!

She watched him fall, unable to move to protect him. Unable to swoop down and save him. They weren’t over water. He was going to crash into the pavement.

“Remy,” she cried, and the third lightning bolt made the world go black.

…

Remy spread his arms and legs out to stop the speed of his descent and watched in horror as his consort was electrocuted and netted. The three studs didn’t spare him a second glance. And why should they? He was useless as tits on a bull up here.

Or was he?

Water called to him. He smelled it. There, in the cloud.

Come to me.

Rain fell, soaking down on him as he fell toward the earth. He sent the raindrops like little bullets into the chimera’s fat ass. It yelped and whirled to fight the invisible enemy that was shredding its skin like shrapnel.

“Over here,” he snarled, sending an arrow of water into the Celtic’s flank.

The Celtic just flew on with an unconscious Margery in his claws. The Chinese dragon spared him a glance over his shoulder and followed the Celtic. The chimera, enraged and bloodied, dived for him.

Remy shifted, and the bulk of his tail slammed the chimera upside all three heads. “Who sent you?” he snarled.

“Die.” The chimera came after him, all teeth and claws.

Remy let the attack hit so he could coil his body around the other dragon, trapping the wings under his constricting bulk. Tucking his chin to save his throat from being ripped out, he squeezed tighter as the chimera ripped chunks of his flesh away. He concentrated and made the rain fall like hail on the parts of the chimera’s body that weren’t gripped in his coils.

After a moment more of pounding and squeezing, the chimera realized they were plummeting to the earth.

“Are you trying to kill us both?” he shouted.

“My Queen is dead. I’m dead anyway.”

“She’s not dead. Smythe gave specific orders. I would never accept a contract to kill a Queen.”

The chimera didn’t realize the rain was pushing them out to Long Island Sound, slowly. Remy hoped it would be enough. But as if the ocean sensed his thoughts, a spray fountained up and coiled around them. The stream yanked them down, fast.

All three of the chimera’s heads screamed as they headed toward the water at a breakneck speed.

“Where’s he taking her?”

“Smythe Industries,” the chimera babbled. “Let me go.” He struggled, but Remy only tightened around him more.

“Why does he want her?”

“He wants to leverage her freedom for another shipment of pills.”

The coil of water turned into a bubble, and they hit the water with enough force to send a massive wave all over Jones Beach. But the bubble protected them from impact. The salt water stung his eyes; he preferred the crisp freshwater of lakes and rivers. The sheer power of the ocean drenched his cuts and bruises, and he roared in agony even as they healed up. Talk about pouring salt into fresh wounds. With a final squeeze of his coils, Remy broke the chimera’s back and watched him sink and drown in a painful death.

Remy was not a stone-cold killer. But he would not stand for an attack on his Queen.

Kill him.

This time his mother and he were in perfect agreement.