city of dragons 02 - fire storm (13 page)

“Did you just tell me to shut up?”

I sighed. “Look, I know that you’re pissed about the fact that Jensen and I are micromanaging you, but we’re going to figure out this magic thing soon, so stop taking it out on me.”

“Did you figure out how to teach me magic?”

“Not really,” I mumbled.

“What?”

“Listen, I just
do
it. I don’t know how, and I think maybe we need to talk to Ophelia about it.”

“Okay,” said Felicity. “That makes sense.”

Ophelia was a mage who owned The Pink Flamingo Cafe, which was right next door to my hotel. We had an arrangement in which she offered a continental breakfast to my hotel guests and I paid her a fee monthly. I also ate breakfast there nearly every day. Sometimes lunch too.

“Okay, good,” I said.

“The light’s green.”

“I can see that.”

“Then why aren’t you moving?”

I pushed down on the gas, and we lurched forward.

“Seriously,” said Felicity. “What is up with you?”

“I told you,” I said. “Nothing.”

“Is it about Lachlan?”

“No,” I said. I gripped the steering wheel tightly. “Maybe.”

“What happened?”

“We sort of… had sex,” I said.

“No way,” said Felicity. “You didn’t tell me?”

“Well, I was going to, but then he said he was going to call. And he didn’t.”

“When did this happen?”

“Not last night, but the night before,” I said. “Don’t you think he should have called at least last night?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he got busy.”

“The other day, I ignored his calls for like five hours, and he threw a fit about how he was worried I was dead and stuff,” I said. “Of course, that was right after Alastair beat the crap out of us, but still. He should have called. He said he was going to call.”

“Was the sex… okay?”

“It was wonderful,” I said. “I mean, it was for me. He acted like he liked it. I don’t know. He seemed so…” I shook my head, blowing out a huff of air. I was starting to get a lump in my throat, and I felt like a complete idiot—like some kind of lovesick teenager or something. “He seemed happy. And he’s never happy, not
really
happy. And he told me that he was going to make it easier for me to trust him, and—”

“Why don’t you trust him?”

“Oh just because of the blood-drinking stuff, I guess.”

“What?” Felicity’s jaw dropped. “What are you talking about?”

“I didn’t tell you about this?”

“No,” she said.

“Right, I guess I didn’t tell anyone about it. I was kind of embarrassed. Well, the first time it happened, we had to do it so that he had magic, because we were captured by the Brotherhood, and he bit my wrist, and it was amazing. It was like we were instantly connected, and we were really powerful too. I remember we ripped bullets out of the air. I felt as if I was almost merging with nature or something. It was really intense.”

“Whoa,” said Felicity. “Maybe I should let Jensen bite me.”

“No!” I said. “Because after that, then he just kept going, taking more and more and more, and I started to… fade out.” I clutched the steering wheel, shaking my head. “He thinks he could have killed me, but I don’t—”

“
Red light!
” Felicity screamed.

Damn it. I slammed on the brakes, but I could already see that it wasn’t going to be quick enough, that I was going to bash into the cars in front of me and crunch into them, metal screaming against metal.

Felicity put up both of her hands.

I gritted my teeth for impact.

But we stopped right there.

We were both flung forward into our seat belts, and I was so startled at the sudden lack of movement that I let off the brake.

The car didn’t move.

I turned slowly to Felicity. “Did you do that?”

She swallowed. “My talisman is hot.”

I let out a dumbstruck laugh. “You did it. You did magic. All on your own.”

“Wow,” she whispered.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Good thing too,” Felicity said. “Because I’m beginning to think I’m even less safe in the car with you than I am against crazed vampires.”

* * *

Felicity collapsed on the couch, exhausted. “Okay, you seriously didn’t tell me that magic makes you this tired.” The incident in the car seemed to have unlocked Felicity’s hidden potential. She was taking to it like a duck to water. I wondered if the fact that she was already a magical being made it easier for her to channel the magic of the talisman through her body.

I laughed, wiping sweat away from my forehead. “I think I did. It definitely takes it out of you. You want to go to the Flamingo for some food?”

“Definitely,” she said. “I’m starving.” She sat up. “But we smell gross.”

“You want to take a shower?” I said. “It’s not like you didn’t used to live here, so it wouldn’t be weird.” Felicity and I had been roommates until she moved in with Jensen. I still missed having her around.

“Are you going to take a shower too?” she said.

“Well, I guess if you do, then I should. Because I don’t want to stink if you smell good.”

She laughed. “Okay, but we both have to be quick, because I’m really hungry. And if you take your typical thirty-minute shower, then—”

“I don’t shower for thirty minutes.”

“You want to bet?”

“Whatever, like you’re so much quicker.”

“I’m going to be today.” She scampered up off the couch. “I can borrow something to put on besides this, right?” She plucked at her sweaty shirt.

“Totally.”

She paused in the doorway. “Hey, um, about what you were talking about earlier? About Lachlan almost killing you?”

“I don’t think that would happen,” I said.

“It makes me nervous is all,” she said. “Maybe it’s better if he doesn’t call you, you know?”

“How could it be better?” I said.

“Well, maybe he realizes that he could hurt you, and he’s only trying to protect you.”

I groaned. “I can protect myself. I breathe fire for Pete’s sake.”

She shrugged.

“You know what?” I said. “I’m just going to call him. He was probably busy with work or something.”

“That’s totally the thing to do,” she said. “Don’t torture yourself. Just call him.”

I nodded, taking a deep breath. “I’m doing it right now.”

“Okay, I’ll leave you to it.” She disappeared back the hallway.

I got out my phone and dialed.

It rang.

Once. Twice. Three times.

Hell, it was going to go to voicemail.

“Penny,” Lachlan answered. His voice was hoarse, and he sounded bleary.

“Did I wake you up?” I said.

“Um…” A long pause. “Yeah.”

“You were asleep? It’s past noon.”

“I was at the station for a long time helping out, and then I volunteered to do some surveillance with this task force because one of the guys was out sick, and I was just up for a long time, so I crashed. What day is it?”

“What day is it?”

“Yeah,” he said.

“Are you all right?”

“Is it Tuesday?”

“It’s Wednesday,” I said.

He groaned. “Oh, shit. I was trying to sleep through Wednesday.”

“Lachlan?”

“I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”

“Are you okay?”

“I can’t really talk right now, Penny. I’m sorry.” He hung up.

I took the phone away from my ear and stared at it. Seriously?

When Felicity got out of the shower, I was pacing the living room.

“What did he say?” she asked.

“Oh, I don’t even want to get into that,” I seethed. “I don’t know how I ever let myself think that man was anything other than a complete screw-up.”

“Okay,” she said slowly.

“Look, you’re doing really well with magic,” I said. “You got plans tonight?”

* * *

“I don’t know, Penny, are you sure this is a good idea?” Felicity was saying. “I mean, last time, you got arrested.”

“Well, no one’s going to get killed tonight,” I said. “We’re going to scare them, that’s all.”

Felicity and I were sitting out behind the pool, and I was laying out a set of machetes that I’d purchased specifically for this little outing.

“Why do we have swords, then?” she said.

“They aren’t swords, they’re machetes,” I said. “And that’s to scare them. Because we’re going to threaten to cut off their heads.”

She nodded. “But I don’t think I could cut off anyone’s head.”

“No, I know that. You don’t have to. Just look tough.”

She wrinkled up her nose, considering.

“If you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to,” I said.

“Well, you were all saying that stuff about little Jenna, and I don’t want her getting her blood drained out of her or whatever,” said Felicity. “So, no, I’m in. I’ll do it.”

“Do what?” said Connor. He was standing in the doorway wearing a pair of tiny cut-off jean shorts and nothing else. He scratched his stomach and yawned. It was barely after sundown, so he must have just woken up.

“We’re going after the vampires at The Dungeon,” said Felicity.

“What? Without me?” said Connor.

I raised my eyebrows. “You want to come?”

“You let me come last time we went up against vampires,” he said, grinning.

“Yeah, but there was also that time you got hurt when the vampires broke into the hotel,” I said.

Connor squared his shoulders. “Yeah, I healed from that really fast, though. I’m a gargoyle. I’m tough.”

“Where’s your talisman?” I said.

“I can get it,” he said.

“You really shouldn’t take that off,” I told him. “It can protect you.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He yawned again. “So, I can come?”

I sized him up. “I really don’t know, Connor.”

“I’m not letting you guys leave me behind,” he said.

“Okay,” I said. “But the first sign of trouble, you run and get out of there.”

“Can I carry a machete?” he said.

I couldn’t help but grin. “Sure.”

“And I’m going to need coffee,” he said. “Are you guys leaving like right away?”

* * *

“Um, you’re that chick who was here before with the cop,” said the doorman at The Dungeon. “I can’t let you in. Besides, you can’t bring, um, weapons into the club.” He gestured to our machetes, which we had strapped to our belts.

“I’m not asking permission,” I said. “Step aside.”

The doorman furrowed his brow. “Listen, if you don’t back away—”

“What? You’ll call the police?” I laughed. “I highly doubt that.” I put my hand on my machete. “Move.”

He thought about it. He shrugged. “Okay, yeah, whatever.” He took off away from the door, running for his car.

Felicity, Connor, and I exchanged a look. That had been easy.

We stepped inside the club. The atmosphere hadn’t changed at all since the last time Lachlan and I had been there. Red lights, a floor filled with couches. The only thing different was that the couches weren’t full. I guess it was a little early for all the younger dragon set to come out. It was also a Wednesday, and maybe that made a difference. I didn’t know. I vaguely remembered that when I was an unmated dragon, I was all about partying on every day that ended in Y.

Whatever the case, it meant that the vampires without someone to prey on were lounging around the room in the tables and chairs that lined the edges of the room.

They might not have been vampires, but they looked the part. They were all very gothic, decked out in black leather and wearing lots of eye makeup.

When they saw us, they all stood up.

There was a bit of a stare-down between them. And then they seemed to come to a silent consensus and all of them sat down except three, who approached us.

They were all male. One had a nose ring. Another had a bare chest under his leather jacket. The third had his hair in a ponytail at the nape of his neck.

“We don’t usually serve drakes and gargoyles,” purred Bare Chest. “But I’m willing to expand my horizons.” He winked at Connor.

Connor yanked his machete out of his belt. “We’re not actually here for your services.” He pointed the long blade at Bare Chest, who backed up, eyeing its sharp edge.

“Hey, there’s no reason to get violent,” said Nose Ring.

“No,” I said. “There’s not. How about you all just pack up and leave this place and stop feeding on dragon youth? Then we wouldn’t have any more problem.”

Ponytail laughed. “Who do you think you are?”

“She was here with that cop,” said the manager we’d met before, hurrying across the room. “What the hell?” he said, gesturing to the machete.

Connor pointed it at the manager.

“You really human?” I asked him.

“He’s really human,” said Bare Chest.

“Good,” I said, grabbing the manager and pulling him close so that I could stare into his eyes. “You’ve suddenly decided that you have no desire to work here anymore. You’re going to want to leave.”

“Yeah, I want to leave,” said the manager in the sleepy voice of the compelled.

I let go of him.

He turned slowly and began to wander toward the door.

Bare Chest narrowed his eyes. “What are you?”

I laughed, letting a little tendril of smoke escape my lips. “Guess,” I hissed.

“Fuck,” said Ponytail, starting after the manager.

I reached out with magic and halted him. I picked him up off the ground and pulled him back in front of us.

“All right,” yelled Felicity, “it’s over. Any vamp with your teeth in someone’s neck has two seconds to remove them before we remove them for you.”

There was a rustle of movement around the edge of the room from the waiting vampires, but the vamps on the couches didn’t budge from feeding on their partners.

I looked at Felicity. “Keep those guys from going anywhere.” I pointed to the perimeter of the room.

Felicity clutched her talisman and reached out with the other hand.

The vampires at the edge of the room were all suddenly pinned to the wall.

I turned to the center of the room. I reached out with my magic and plucked each of the vampires who was feeding on a dragon off of their prey. I lifted the vampires into the air, hovering them near the ceiling.

“Any dragon in here needs to get out,” I called.

The dragons were sitting up and looking around, confused.