Dragons Prefer Blondes (3 page)

He stood, a bit unsteady at first, and I almost reached out to him. A proud man, he flashed me a look that said to back off, but in a kind way. “You’ll do no such thing, and you’ve been wonderful company to an old man.” Moving to the window, he glanced out. “All clear.”

“What do you mean?” I stood and stretched. The scratch on my ribs where the dragon had clawed me ached like a mother, but I’d survive.

Waving a hand, he turned toward me. “The snow, dear. It’s finally slowing down. Going to be a beautiful morning.”

“Well, thank you again for the tea and for the tour of this beautiful place. I think I would have been interested even if the gargoyles hadn’t invited me.”

“You come back to visit anytime, and let your family know that they are always welcome at McMurphy’s.”

“I will.” I still had a strong urge to hug him, but I held out my hand instead. His grip was strong, and he winked at me. I bet he’d been something back in the day.

“Now, you be careful, young Guardian. Times are tricky.” He shuffled toward the door.

“That they are, Mr. McMurphy. I can find my way out. Why don’t you go ahead and get some rest.” I cleared my throat. “I’ll make sure the door is locked behind me.”

I heard him chuckle.

He turned, and there was a twinkle in his eye. “Well, that’ll save these old bones a trip, so I appreciate it. Till we meet again.” He tipped his head to me.

I waved good-bye.

At the back door, I took one last look around.
Man, I’d really like to get my hands on this place.
I made sure the door was locked and then slammed it shut. On the other side it took me a moment to realize something was wrong. I looked to the right and left, my senses on guard.

“Ah, hell.”

Nothing was there.

I mean, like nothing.

Dude, where’s my dragon?

CHAPTER 3

After surveying the surrounding area, I realized someone must have taken the monster. Great. I prayed it hadn’t been the paparazzi. The wealthy Caruthers sisters were popular fodder for the tabloids. It usually worked to our advantage, because no one ever suspected we were actually Guardians who protected Earth.

But at times the cameras and reporters could be invasive. They dug through our trash, interviewed people who called themselves a “close friend,” and chased us around the world.

I sighed. “Where did it go?” He’d been one dead dragon, and there was no way he’d left of his own volition. There were no footsteps or tracks to follow.

Crap.
I made a run around the entire building and up and down the block but saw nothing. I thought about going back inside to see if the old man had seen anything, but I didn’t want to bother him. Besides, he knew about the dragon and would have said something.

I did the only thing I could. I glanced around to make sure no one was around. Then, slapping the two crescent moon-shaped tattoos on my wrists together, I teleported to the control room at the Caruthers headquarters.

“Where the hell have you been?” Jake, the head of security, raged. The guy was a marine at one time and had worked for the CIA and FBI. I’d never seen him break a sweat over any situation before, let alone yell. And trust me when I say we Caruthers sisters get in a lot of situations. “You were off the damn grid for almost half an hour.” A hottie in a suit, he had short black hair, mussed as if he’d been running his hand through it in frustration.

Though I refused to admit it to anyone, the man intrigued me. I’d been attracted to him for ages, but I was too afraid of screwing things up to sleep with him. When he wasn’t yelling at me, he’d become a great friend, and I needed those a lot more than a bed buddy.

“Hi to you, too. What do you mean I was off the grid?” I pulled the knife I’d used to slay the dragon and put it on the steel table.

The control room was where the security gang kept an eye out for visitors from other worlds and helped us track them. They also kept tabs on us, thanks to a new GPS and ear comm my brother, Bailey, devised last week. He’d been kidnapped the month before and decided we needed a better way to keep track of everyone.

“Well, one minute you were there with a dead dragon. The next you disappeared. Ten minutes later a large contingent of your fiery friends descended, had to be at least twenty of them, picked up your dead guy, and left. No sign of you.”

I scrunched up my face. “Oh.”

“Oh?” If I hadn’t known him well, I might have worried he’d strangle me. “That’s all you can say?”

“I was distracted by this old building I found.”

He closed his eyes, and I think he might have been counting to ten. “Exploring architecture doesn’t take you off the grid.”

I shrugged. “Yeah, well, I think it’s protected by really powerful magic. I imagine that’s why you couldn’t see me. See, there was this old guy—”

He closed his eyes again.

“Why are you so upset? We go off the grid all the time when we travel to other worlds.”

He opened those steely grays and gave me a look that would have wilted bamboo. “I thought you were dead.” The words came out in a harsh whisper.

“Me? I’m kind of tough to kill. You should know that by now.” I’d grown up training to be a warrior, and death was part of what we did. I wasn’t as afraid of it as most folks were, which was probably a good thing, since I faced it on a daily basis. “I still don’t understand why you’re so freaked.”

“Insane,” he growled. “You and your sisters. Can’t understand why someone might be worried that you’re dead.” He threw his hands up in the air. “Guardians. Why the hell did I sign up for this?” He stomped toward the door but turned before he left. “You need to find out where those dragons were hiding. They didn’t come through any of the portals. They were already on Earth. Just like you, one minute they were there, and the next they were gone with your package. My guess is they have some kind of lair there in Montreal.” He scowled and left.

Pulling out a rag, I cleaned the dragon blood off the knife. “Someone is Mr. Cranky Pants tonight. Jeez, it’s not like I was gone that long.”

I heard someone chuckle. “Are you talking to yourself again, Al?” Claire, my baby sister, leaned against the door. Her surfer-girl blonde locks were pulled into pigtails, making her look even younger than her twenty-one years. Except for her eyes. Those deep azure orbs revealed an old soul. A documentary filmmaker, she was the Guardian responsible for dealing with water-related beings from sea nymphs to creatures that would put the Loch Ness monster to shame.

“Well, I was talking to Mr. Bossy Man.” I leaned my head on the window that separated the weapons room from the control center where the security personnel and tracking computers were set up. Jake still scowled but was immersed in a conversation with one of the guys. “For some reason he’s mad because I disappeared for a bit.”

Claire grinned as she picked up the bowie knife from the table and cleaned it again. She can be a bit obsessive-compulsive sometimes. Then again, I was the queen of just-good-enough, so we made a great team. “Yeah, well, he was upset enough to call Mom. I just texted her and told her you were back.”

“Great. Now she’s going to be mad at me for causing trouble.” My mother loved us, but she took Guardian responsibilities very seriously. Even if I explained about Mr. McMurphy, she wouldn’t understand. There was no pleasing the woman. After our father died a few years ago, she’d devoted herself to protecting our world. She was a powerful mage, and she held a high position on the council, which helped to keep peace throughout the universe. With the invasive darkness causing havoc everywhere, she and the council were always busy these days. And she didn’t like being interrupted.

“Jake was worried.” Claire looked over my shoulder to where he stood. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say he’s crushing on you.”

I snorted. “Please. Jake’s a friggin’ robot. No. He lost one of us off the grid. It’s his job to make sure he knows where we are at all times. Trust me, that’s all it was.”

“I don’t know. He was pretty frantic there, especially the last ten minutes or so. He blamed the guys in control and ripped them all a new one. So where were you?”

I told her about Mr. McMurphy.

“Very cool. I’d love to see those books.” Claire was every bit as brilliant as Bailey. His talent was designing wicked weapons to help us do our job. Claire, on the other hand, was a research whiz and a talented problem solver. She had a way of seeing the big picture like no one I’d ever met.

“Well, maybe you can come back with me later today or tonight. Jake seems to think there might be a lair, and I’d like you to meet Mr. McMurphy. There’s something special about him, and I don’t like the idea of him being there alone, especially with dragons all over the place.”

“We’re still on the tiger shark shoot, but I can take off day after tomorrow to help out. In fact”—she glanced at her watch—“I better get back. It’s almost time to rig up for our night shoot. Text me if you need me.”

She turned and looked at me. “I really like the new hair.”

I hadn’t had much of a choice where my locks were concerned. After a particularly nasty run-in with a gang of dragons, my ends weren’t split; they were singed. I’d made a quick trip to Beverly Hills to visit my favorite hair god, Sir David. He’d turned my black hair blonde and given it a funky, rocker chic cut that I ended up loving. In fact, I’d designed a whole new wardrobe around it. This was the first time I’d ever been a blonde, and I kind of liked it.

After putting the weapons away in the steel cases and locking them, I went to change. My sisters and I had residences around the world, but we all still kept rooms here at the main house as well. This was Caruthers central, and since we were all close, we came home a lot. We’d been here even more often since Mom started traveling so much. It wasn’t that we didn’t love her. Life was just easier when she was busy and not in our business.

The great thing about being able to teleport anywhere in the world in a few seconds was that we could always be there for one another.

A quick shower and change of clothes was all it took to revive me. I don’t need more than about three hours’ sleep a night, which is how I’m able to run my businesses
and
take care of any dragon situations that arise. And—crap—plan weddings.

Please, God. Tell me that was a horrible nightmare.
I checked my phone. There were seventeen text messages from Aspen. Gah. High-maintenance didn’t begin to describe the woman.

I squinted my eyes as I opened the first one, almost afraid to read it. She had sent links to different sites with ideas for what she wanted. From what I could gather, she wanted a small (only fifteen hundred people) English garden-type wedding at the castle.

Right after that was a text that said it might be too cold in England for an outdoor wedding, so better plan something for the big ballroom at the castle.

In the next e-mail she thought maybe for the other wedding they would get married on the beach. She wanted an unusual color scheme. “Pucci-esque” she called it. I happened to love Pucci but the bright, swirling colors weren’t exactly designed for a winter wedding. Each consecutive e-mail contained a completely different idea and plan, each one more outrageous than the last.

I looked to the heavens with a silent prayer.
God, please save me from this insanity.

My phone rang, and I checked to make sure it wasn’t Aspen. It was security.

“Miss Caruthers, this is Gerald in Security One. We have a call from Xerxes. The warrior Ginjin has requested a meeting.”

Careful what you wish for, chica.
“Thanks. I’ll be down in a minute.”

It made me laugh that Gerald had used the term “requested.” Ginjin never asked anyone for anything; he only demanded. The dragon warrior and I had an uneasy truce these days, though he still hadn’t forgiven me for saving his life. At first I thought he was mad because I had denied him a hero’s death, but now I wasn’t so sure.

Pulling my arms above my head, I stretched. At the closet I grabbed a pair of steel-toed boots to go with my jeans and switched my Theory blouse for a long-sleeved T-shirt. I hated it when dragons misbehaved and singed my clothes. I’d learned long ago to wear fire-resistant cotton, which gave my cooling power time to kick in.

I’m not sure how it works biologically, but I think
Cold
, and I can drop my body temperature down to subzero, which keeps burn damage from the fiery ones to a minimum and slows my heart rate. That last part is important, since the big beasts don’t just get fiery. There are acid- and poison-spitting dragons, which are equally dangerous.

The control room was several stories underneath the main house, which aboveground looked like the large Gothic mansion it was. Underneath was a world of secrets with several floors of everything from magical healers to workout spaces to security and weapons makers. The Caruthers complex had been designed to be the center of magical control for us. Anything we could need or want was at the ready, and if not, someone would make it for us.

In the weapons room I picked up a small crossbow designed by my brother. It fit well in a harness on my back but didn’t restrict movement like many of the larger weapons did. I also grabbed one of the new guns he’d made that could blow up most anything within thirty feet and put it in another holster at my waist.

“I heard you’re headed to Xerxes.” Jake’s voice was calm, and he seemed more like his old self.

“Yes. Ginjin needs something.” The warrior had the unenviable job of trying to keep the peace on his planet while a new government was formed. Their world had been temporarily taken over by the evil pervading the universe the month before. Ginjin and his warriors, along with powerful mages, were able to push the evil out, but not before thousands of dragons had killed each other. Most of the government officials had been wiped off the planet, so the council had put together a provisional government to keep the place from imploding. A government temporarily headed by their most powerful warrior, and until recently, the guy most likely to want me dead: Ginjin.