Chapter 9

EMERSON 

"The house has been so boring without you. It's like you took the life out of the house when you left," Belinda said, throwing her arms around me when I opened the front door.

I squeezed her in a death grip of my own. "I missed you."

"Let her come in before squeezing the life out of her, Emerson," Emily's amused voice said.

We pulled away from each other with huge grins on our faces. Emily and Belinda exchanged hugs. 

"You look just like your mother," Emily said.

"I like to think I'm the prettier version, but thank you," Belinda joked. "You're stunning."

Emily smiled. "Thank you, honey. I assume you girls aren't going to eat anything?"

"We'll have something to eat later." To Belinda I said. "If you let her, she's going to stuff you full of food before the day is over."

"I have a high rate of metabolism. I can manage, but right now, Emerson and I are going to go do some girly gossip."

Emily waved us off, picking her bag up from a table in the foyer. "Sure. Darren won't be home until later. I'll be back in a few hours. I have to go shopping for some groceries and other home essentials. If you need anything, the cook is there for you girls."

"Bye!" We chorused.

Belinda turned to me when Emily was out the door. "Please tell me there's a boy you're crushing on after all these years of getting homeschooled."

The blush that tinted my cheeks was a dead giveaway. 

"Ha! I knew it! Tell me everything about him."

***

"Let me get one thing straight. Does this girl like Armani?" Belinda asked after I narrated everything that went down this week to her.

I was wrong. Belinda did ask us to use the pool. That was where we currently were. I'd also shown her the mark on my waist, and she'd promised not to tell anyone.

"I don't know."

"She better not, because I swear I'm ready to throw some hands."

I laughed. "Why?"

"What do you mean why? You're not fighting any bitch, fake or not, for your man's attention."

"Oh, my goodness, stop." I was fucking embarrassed. "Plus, Armani isn't a man. He's a boy."

She rolled her eyes. "Sometimes, you need to stop being meek. Confidence goes a long way. If I were in your shoes, I'd lay things flat with him."

"He didn't outright say he liked me. I can't just walk up to him and start discussing relationships."

"Confidence, babe. Sometimes, some guys are too dumb to take the first step. You have to do it yourself, but that doesn't make you desperate. It's called getting what you want."

"So, you're saying you'd ask a guy you liked out?"

"Why the fuck not? I'm not one for what-ifs and little back-and-forths. The time you're wasting by pussyfooting around Armani could be spent creating memories with him until he goes loco. Who knows? You could be his mate. His ancestors do have a track record of mating with their riders."

Mates and riders were two different terms. You could be mates with a dragon, and still not be its rider. The same went for riders. During my brief research on mates, I found out that a dragon mate bond formed over time, not all of a sudden. The couple had to already have a relationship before a bond could be formed between them.

Most dragons did end up mating with their riders since they spent a lot of time with each other, understanding each other, but other cases were different. It depended on where their hearts belonged.

"What about the issue with me being his real rider? What happens with that?"

"Maybe he doesn't want to be tamed, and wants to be killed instead. I read somewhere that blood dragons often choose this option when they have deep connections with people they don't want to see dead."

Armani wanted death as an option? That must be why he didn't want me as his rider. He didn't want to be tamed. I had to respect his choice, but for some reason, that decision didn't sit well with me. I didn't want him dead.

***

"Emerson! It's a call from one of your friends at school," Emily said, shaking me ahead. 

I was grateful for her interruption because I was in another one of Armani's nightmares, but this was by far the worst.

He was chained to the wall with no means of escape, stripped of all his clothing except his briefs. He shivered in the cold room, his teeth clattering loudly. Who exactly was putting all of these nightmares into his head?

Belinda turned on her other side, burrowing deeper underneath the covers.

"A friend at school?" I asked, pushing my brown locks out of my eyes. 

"Yes. It's North."

North? Dread washed over me before I even took the phone from Emily. I knew he wasn't calling me to invite me to some random party. Something had happened.

I pressed the phone against my ear, swallowing the lump in my throat. "Did something happen, North? It's late."

"It's Armani. He's missing."

A sharp ache pierced my chest at the mention of his name. "How do you know he's missing?"

"No one has laid an eye on him since the Communication class you two had together."

"That was around nine this morning."

"Exactly. We thought he went home to take a break, but when we called his mother, she said the last time she laid eyes on him was when he left for school this morning."

"Where are you right now?"

"School. The cameras never caught him leaving school today."

"So, he's still in there. I'm on my way." I hung up, handing the phone back to Emily.

"I heard everything. Darren will drive."

As we all piled into a car on our way to school, that feeling of dread still hung over my head. Something had happened to Armani on school grounds. I just hoped he wasn't dead or badly injured.

'Please be okay.'