Cunning Dragon (Dragon Echoes Book 2) Read online

  This was not good.

  Not good at all.

  “Well?” Paul demanded. “Surely you have something to say to this?”

  Lisa shrugged. “So Rita snapped a photo of us stuck out in the outback and since that story wouldn’t be in the least bit interesting to anyone, she photoshopped a pretend dragon into the scene.”

  She glanced at the paper again, then added, “And she’s not very good at photoshopping.” She stared around at her family, scorn written on her face. “You don’t believe this crap, do you?”

  Verrian had to hand it to Lisa. Her contempt was so convincing, he almost believed it himself.

  “You have to admit, it makes a pretty cool story,” Vera said, grinning.

  “Let me look at that,” Lisa’s mother said, taking the paper out of Lisa’s hand. She stared at it, frowning.

  “Something’s going on,” Paul insisted. “Even Rita knows it.” He stared at Verrian. “I hardly believe you’re a dragon, I’m not crazy, but there is definitely something strange about you.”

  “This is a problem because...?” Verrian asked.

  “Because you’re staying under my roof,” Lisa’s father said flatly.

  “And doing who knows what with our daughter,” her mother added, looking up from the paper with a scowl.

  Verrian hid a wince. Both good points. What he wanted to do was bow politely and offer to leave. He had no interest in trying to explain himself to these people. He suspected they wouldn’t understand, even if he told them the truth.

  But it was hard to justify not explaining himself when he was imposing on their hospitality.

  Trouble was, if he left, he risked exposing the dragon’s secret even more thoroughly than he already had.

  “V… Ryan is my friend,” Lisa said flatly. “If he’s not welcome here, and without all this constant hassling, then I don’t want to be here either.” She put her hands on her hips and glared at her family.

  Warmth for her loyalty warred with concern at her pushing the issue. While he admired her determination, pushing her family with an ultimatum right now wasn’t the best plan. If her family kicked them out…

  Before he could find out how they were going to react, there was a knock at the door.

  All eyes turned in that direction and for a moment, no one spoke.

  “Go get that,” Lisa’s dad said to Paul.

  Lisa’s brother looked from her, to their father, to the next room where the door was, clearly sizing up what would be the most interesting. Then he shrugged and headed towards the door. Vera followed, standing in the doorway to the next room to watch.

  No one said anything, making it quite easy to hear the conversation in the next room. “I hear you’ve got a dragon staying with you,” a man’s voice said loudly.

  “Get lost,” Paul said, and slammed the door shut.

  Lisa gave a slight giggle, the sound surprising Verrian so much, he turned to stare at her. She shrugged.

  Verrian berated his mind for being impressed that she could laugh at a time like this.

  He didn’t feel like laughing in the least.

  His heart was thumping, and try as he might, he couldn’t think of any way they were going to get out of this.

  The news was out and it was all his fault.

  He should never have let himself transform and fly them away. Lisa had told him not to, but he’d convinced her. He should have listened to her.

  She knew more about humans and what they were capable of.

  He didn’t.

  Clearly.

  Paul returned. He looked at his mother and father, then at Lisa. “This is going to be fun.”

  Lisa stared at her brother, as though evaluating him. “Why did you tell them to get lost?” she asked.

  Paul shrugged. Was it Verrian’s imagination, or did he look a little embarrassed. “None of their business.” Then his face hardened. “And I’m not going to let Mum and Dad be hassled just because you decided to pick up some weird guy and bring him home.”

  Lisa’s expression had been a little less antagonistic at his first words, but hardened at his next.

  “Are we going to have to put up with people knocking on our door asking for dragons night and day now?” Lisa’s mother said with a long-suffering sigh.

  “No, because Lisa is going to tell us what is going on so we can sort out this mess,” her father said, folding his arms. “Luckily, we’ve had plenty of experience in sorting out her messes, so it shouldn’t be hard.”

  Lisa folded her arms and glared back at him.

  Verrian was developing a greater understanding of why Lisa wanted to avoid her parents. He hadn’t seen much of them up until now, at her insistence, so he’d begun to question whether they really could be as bad as they’d seemed at first.

  Apparently they could.

  He couldn’t believe how much they constantly put her down. It was like they didn’t care about her at all.

  Unsurprisingly, Lisa obviously had no intention of explaining herself to her father. Even if they were the kindest, most helpful people in the world, they couldn’t fix this situation.

  No one could.

  The only way it could be fixed was for him to disappear, but he had no idea how he could manage that.

  Lisa dropped her hands to her sides and heaved a sigh. “There’s nothing going on,” she said, but her voice was tired.

  Guilt stabbed Verrian at her obvious exhaustion. That was his fault too. This was a huge strain on her. One that wasn’t her responsibility. Verrian felt bad for dragging her into the middle of this mess, and even worse for keeping her stuck in it.

  Paul swore. “Like hell there’s nothing going on. Rita doesn’t go around posting pictures like that for no reason. She’s not going to risk her job at the Mungaloo Chronicle by publishing such a wacky story without some motivation. So why did she do this?”

  “I don’t know.” Frustration laced Lisa’s words. “It’s not like anyone is going to believe a stupid, blurry photo. So you tell me. Why? Why would she make up something like this?”

  If Verrian didn’t know better, he would have believed her. She let just enough frustration into her voice for it to be believable.

  Goodness knows, she had plenty of real reasons for frustration.

  “I reckon she’s jealous of your hottie,” Vera interjected, looking Verrian up and down.

  Her expression made Verrian feel distinctly uncomfortable. More so when Paul frowned at his partner’s comment, and turned on Verrian with a suddenness that caught him by surprise.

  “So what is your story then?” Lisa’s brother demanded. “Who are you, where are you from, and where did you meet my sister?”

  Verrian’s immediate instinct was to turn to Lisa and let her answer those questions. But he knew before he moved that response would only fuel Paul’s suspicions. He may not know much about humans, but he’d met plenty of dragons like Paul. They preyed on uncertainty. The only way to beat them was to not back down.

  He needed an answer. One the humans would find acceptable.

  When Rita had asked that question, Lisa had said he’d worked for her. Somehow, he didn’t think that answer would impress Paul. And much as he didn’t care what the human thought of him, impressing him was the first step in intimidating him.

  Rita had been impressed when he’d said he was a singer.

  Or maybe she’d been impressed with his singing.

  Either way, it was the best answer he had.

  “I’m a singer. I work in the city, near Lisa. We met at…”

  That was where his imagination failed him. He hadn’t seen anything of the human town other than when they’d first driven through, but Lisa had told him that the city where she worked was far larger. He had no idea where people might meet each other.

  “At a concert,” Lisa jumped in smoothly. She gave Verrian such an admiring look that he might have believed her if he didn’t already know she was making it up. “He was so awesome, I had to
go and ask for his autograph.”

  She even batted her eyelids at him.

  It was all Verrian could do to stop his heart giving the kind of leap it might if her flirting was real.

  But it wasn’t. Not any more than anything else she’d said in the last few minutes.

  Verrian refused to let himself wish her flirting was real. They didn’t need that sort of added complication right now.

  “You expect me to believe that?” Paul said, his voice full of scorn. “If you were a famous singer, I would have heard of you.”

  “Ryan didn’t say he was famous,” Lisa pointed out. “He was the support act. But I happen to think he was more awesome than the main act.”

  Paul raised an eyebrow. “Who was the main act?”

  Verrian cursed the fact that he didn’t have any clue what to answer. How was he supposed to impress these humans when he knew so little about their world?

  Lisa took a moment too long to reply. She was struggling to come up with a reasonable story too. Their cover was going to be blown.

  “None of this nonsense matters,” Lisa’s father interjected. “I don’t care who you are, or where you’re from. I do care about this circus impacting on my life.” He stared at his daughter.

  Lisa glared back at him, but didn’t say anything. What could she say? If only they had somewhere else they could go.

  Her lack of comment just gave her father the perfect opening. “This sort of crap has always followed you everywhere. I thought you might learn something from living in the city and having a real job, but I see you’re just as hopeless as always.”

  Hopeless? Lisa?

  Verrian might have laughed at how untrue that was if it wasn’t for the expression on Lisa’s face.

  Her eyes narrowed and her lips formed a tight line. Verrian knew that look. It was the look of someone trying to be strong. To pretend they weren’t hurting. For all her tough exterior, Lisa took her family’s words to heart.

  Deep down, she believed them.

  He couldn’t blame her. If his family told him he was hopeless, he wouldn’t be able to just shake it off either. It would hurt him worse than Ultrima’s claws had. Even if it was the truth. Family should support you, back you up.

  Anger welled up in him that these people couldn’t do that for Lisa. That they couldn’t be the people she needed.

  It was Lisa’s family who were hopeless.

  A fact only emphasized by her father’s next comment. “If you’re not going to tell us what’s going on, then you can get out of here.”

  Verrian was so angry at him that he was almost ready to pull Lisa into his arms and tell them they didn’t need them, and they were out of here. She deserved much better.

  Except he couldn’t.

  The situation here sucked. Lisa’s family were being horrible and clearly hurting her, but this wasn’t just about them. If it were, he’d have no hesitation in taking Lisa away from here. The trouble was, if he did so he risked exposing his whole clan. That was the only reason they were still here.

  Now it looked like they might have no choice.

  “It’s hardly Lisa’s fault that Rita has decided to make up a story about her,” Paul said, uncharacteristically reasonable.

  Verrian stared at him. Instead of feeling relieved, all he could feel was suspicion. What was Paul up to? Why was he defending them? Nothing he’d seen of the man so far explained this. Did he, perhaps, care for his sister, under all his cruel joking? Verrian wasn’t convinced.

  The expression on Lisa’s face was just as disbelieving.

  Even Vera was staring at him.

  “Don’t you go sticking up for her,” her mother scolded. “Just a minute ago, you were saying she was hiding something, now you’re defending her?”

  Paul shrugged. “I still think Lisa’s up to something, but that doesn’t mean she’s crazy. Either way, she’s family, right? What are you going to do, throw her to the wolves?” He pointed at the door where, coincidentally, someone knocked again.

  Everyone stared at each other, all waiting for someone else to make the next move.

  Lisa’s father broke the silence with a sigh. “I’ll let it slide. For now. But you take care of the idiots at the door.” He poked his finger at Paul, then stomped off down the hallway.

  Lisa’s mother stared at them a little longer before following Lisa’s father out of the room.

  The relief Verrian felt was minor. Yes, it was a relief that they didn’t have to try to find somewhere else to go, but it also meant Lisa was stuck dealing with her family for longer. He almost wished they had the excuse to leave.

  Lisa hesitated for a long moment before turning to Paul. “Thanks,” she said gruffly.

  Paul flashed her a cheeky grin. “You owe me,” he said, before turning and heading into the next room to deal with the insistent knocking.

  Somehow, Verrian suspected that it was going to be a big debt to repay.

  Chapter 3

  As the day wore on and the knocks on the door became more frequent and more insistent, Lisa’s frayed nerves grew more and more taut. She wasn’t even game to leave her room again to get food, and the half a packet of chocolates she had stashed in her suitcase did little to ease the hunger pangs.

  Verrian seemed on edge too, though he said very little.

  Both of them were too afraid to talk openly about anything relating to dragons, Verrian, or his clan, leaving them with little to say.

  Lisa entertained herself a little by staring at Verrian. At least no one could object to that, since her whole family already thought she was sleeping with him.

  As a pastime, it was more than entertaining.

  The one positive to the fact that they couldn’t leave the house was that it meant she had the perfect excuse for not finding him more clothes to wear. Which in turn meant she got to stare at his naked chest.

  An opportunity she’d been availing herself of. A lot.

  What she tried not to do was remember how it had felt to make love to him. Even just the memory of it sent a shiver down her spine and made her wish she could repeat the experience.

  Which was a bad idea.

  Sleeping with a dragon wasn’t like anything else she’d ever done. Even doing it once had been deliciously addictive. She was sure it would only get worse if she repeated the experience. And she knew that if she slept with him a third time, it would be more than addictive.

  If you slept with a dragon three times, you were mated for life. A permanent bond was formed that couldn’t ever be broken.

  There was no way she was ready for that. Even if these dragons weren’t more trouble than they were worth, she totally wasn’t ready to settle down yet, if she ever would be. There were still so many men out there she wanted to get to know yet.

  She bit back a sigh. Trouble was, none of them were ever going to measure up to Verrian. He was unlike anyone she’d ever been with.

  Not that Verrian had shown any sign of being interested in her. She couldn’t help being a little disappointed by that. She had no intention of getting herself any further embroiled with the dragons, but it would be nice if he wanted to.

  Of course, he had enough on his mind right now.

  They both did.

  Somehow, they needed to figure out how to allay her family’s suspicions enough that her dad didn’t kick them out, deal with the curious townsfolk turning up on the doorstep, lose Rita, and stay away from Ultrima.

  Just listing all those issues made Lisa feel overwhelmed. She didn’t even know where to start. Sure, she’d had her share of scandals over the years, but they were minor in comparison to this. All that had been on the line had been her reputation, a problem easily solved by moving to another city where no one knew her.

  There was no moving away from this. If this news got out, if Rita could actually convince people it was real, not just some bad photoshopping, it would be all over the world in a matter of hours.

  Come to think of it…

  Lis
a pulled out her phone and checked social media. So far, she couldn’t find any mention of dragons hiding in the Australian outback. That was something at least.

  But she was sure it would come out. It was a matter of when, not if.

  Right now, as another knock at the door ratcheted her nerves up another notch, they had enough to deal with. Lisa gritted her teeth, sparing a relieved thought that at least Paul was the one dealing with it. Who would have expected her brother to actually help?

  Once darkness fell, the knocking finally ceased, but that didn’t bring much relief. Lisa knew that tomorrow morning, it would start up again.

  Had Rita done this deliberately? Had she hoped that the constant barrage of questions and interest would drive them out into the open?

  At this point, Lisa wouldn’t put anything past her.

  She heaved a sigh. One thing was clear.

  “We can’t stay here,” she said quietly.

  The look Verrian gave her was sympathetic. “The situation with your family is certainly intolerable. I’m so sorry that you’re in this mess because of me. But I can’t risk exposing my family by leaving.”

  Lisa stared at him. He was genuinely sorry, she could tell from the sorrowful expression on his face. But there was something he didn’t get. “Your family is at more risk of being exposed if my dad kicks us out. That’s going to make a huge fuss and put us right there out in the open, just where we don’t want to be.”

  Verrian stared at her, concern on his face. “Maybe so,” he conceded, “But without anywhere to go, it’s not going to make anything better.” he asked quietly. “And even if we had somewhere to go, how could we get there?”

  Lisa wished she had answers to that. If only she’d driven her own car to the Mesmer chamber, they’d have one now. Then again, if she’d had her car at the Mesmer chamber, they could have driven home instead of Verrian flying. Then none of this would ever have happened.

  Everything was so easy in hindsight.

  “We should call Karla and tell her what is happening,” Verrian suggested. “Maybe she’ll have some ideas?”

  Lisa was pretty sure she knew what Karla was going to say. Sit tight, and wait for everything to die down. Easy to say when she wasn’t the one who was trying to deal with a difficult family. Or a whole bunch of people knocking on the door.