Read Online Emma (Dark Fire) by Jodie B. Cooper - Free Book Online Page A

snapped Emma to attention. Oh, crap. A really bad feeling started building in the pit of her stomach. He wouldn’t do that to her... would he?
    She shivered, trying hard not to freak-out. Feeling another person’s emotions was too weird for words. She was human, a mortal human. She liked Tyler, but not enough to mate with him.
    Her racing thoughts paused.
    She couldn’t see her entire body, but on the bare skin she could see, she didn’t notice any visible marks. No, wait, the mark was supposed to appear later. Slowly, so not to draw attention, she touched the bare part of her belly, neck, arms... she froze, not daring to move. Her wrist was warm, feeling as if it had fever. Add the fevered skin together with the black hole that had taken up permanent residence and she didn’t like the answer.
    Desolation was a perfect word for the Black Hole.
    Tyler must’ve rejected her as mate before the dorcha had time to do its thing, whatever that ‘thing’ was supposed to be. Maybe when he rejected her, the dorcha ripped part of her soul out or something. She fought back a building sob. That had to be why she now had a huge, aching hole where her heart used to be.
    Fear edged into anger. What the crap had he done to her?
    “What if a dragon mates to the wrong person?” Emma asked worriedly, trying to get her question out before her scowling uncle could blow-up at Lydia. “Are they stuck with each other?”
    “Stuck with each other?” Lydia growled. “We don’t look at it that way, not ever.”
    “I mean, I’m mortal. Why would Tyler think I’m his mate?” Emma asked, unconsciously rubbing her chest. How dare he form some kind of freaky-weird bond with her and not tell her anything. Then the stupid jerk snatched the bond away. She didn’t think she could stand the icy feeling for the remainder of her life.
    Lydia sighed, shaking her head. “We don’t choose our mates.” She growled at Keith’s mocking laughter. “We don’t! Our bodies choose the perfect mate for us and each person only has one perfectly compatible person to spend their life. We spend our life searching for our mate. If you’re his mate, you will be the only one he ever has.”
    Wrapping her arms around herself, Emma’s palm touched the warm flesh of her wrist. Not simply warm, her lower arm felt hot to the touch. Her fingers tightened around the spot and she recognized a flash of Tyler’s fury. The alien emotion only lasted a split-instant, before it disappeared. That microsecond of time was more than enough to realize she was in so much trouble.
    Sweat popped out on her brow and she shivered.
    Oh, boy, having a dragon angry with her was an entirely new experience. She was very glad she wasn’t in front of Tyler. She might find out what toast felt like.
    So much for her theory that he had marked her then took it back.
    Once Tyler’s angry emotion disappeared, the icy ache increased. The empty feeling was nearly overwhelming in its intensity. She swallowed and grasped at anything to pull her mind from the hollow void.
    Shifting from foot-to-foot, Emma blurted, “But why did Tyler freak-out? He scared the crap out of me.”
    “If you’re his mate, he just found out you’ll die in less than a hundred years,” Lydia said softly, her eyes glancing at Keith.
    “Don’t I have anything to say in this mate thing?” Emma huffed.
    “You can refuse him, but I’ve only heard of one woman who refused her mate. And, well, he didn’t live long after she refused him. Once we find our perfect mate, our lives revolve around each other.”
    “But I’m not perfectly compatible for Tyler. I’ll be dead in sixty years. If he only gets one mate, what will he do when I die?” Emma asked. Frustration colored her voice.
    She jerked her hand away from her arm, putting an abrupt stop to feeling his sporadic emotions. At the loss of his emotions, she shuddered. The black hole grew bigger, its icy edge shoving its way through her.
    Well, darn it. She