Dragons Prefer Blondes (8 page)

Monroe was another one of my projects. She was a hooker from Russia who just needed a chance. I found her three years ago when she was hired on at the London club as a dancer. She didn’t even know English, but she learned fast. At night she danced, and during the day she went to school. Over the last few years she worked her way up to bartender and then assistant manager. A few months ago when Gere, the manager, went to the hospital with a stomach virus that turned out to be a deadly run with pancreatic cancer, Monroe stepped up her game.

“I had no doubt. I’m looking at the books here, and everything seems in order. I don’t see any discrepancies, but I need your expertise. And we need to bring someone in who can keep things running.”

“Will Baron be back?”

I looked out the window and watched Lourdes as she poured drinks. She smiled at one of the bar patrons, but it didn’t meet her eyes. “No. He’s going to need a fresh start outside the club environment.”

“I’ll see what I can find for him when he’s ready.” Angel also had a way of finding the perfect job for the right person.

“I’m going to head out. You know how to find me if you need me.”

Just as I hung up, the comm went off in my ear. “Ms. Caruthers? It’s Jake.” I made a mental note to tell him to call me Alex. Even if we weren’t fake dating yet, it was crazy for him to be so formal. “What’s up?”

“We’ve got jumpers in Montreal again. Right near the old church.”

“I’m on the way.” I looked down at my dress. “Wait, can you have a change of—”

“They’re waiting on the table in the weapons room.” As usual, he’d thought of everything.

“Great. I’ll be there in a bit.”

CHAPTER 8

It was predawn in Montreal when I arrived. Going from Madrid to home to Canada had taken me less than five minutes, and that was with a change of clothes and a weapons load.

Teleporting: the only way to travel.

I’d landed directly in front of St. Barnabas, which was two hundred years old and absolutely beautiful. While it wasn’t exactly the Notre-Dame Basilica, it came close. Huge spires loomed above the neo-Gothic gem, but I didn’t have time to admire it.

I turned my senses on full blast. This was near the same church where I’d seen the dragon the other night. There was a slight scent of burned coal, but it was so faint I didn’t know if I could track it. The smoky smell evaporated when I reached the middle of the street. I searched for foot or talon prints in the heavy snow. The plows hadn’t been there yet, but I saw nothing.

“Scaly bastards, where are you?”

Using my boots, I shoved snow away from what looked like a manhole, but there was nothing.

I pushed the comm at my ear. “Where the hell did they go?”

“They’re off the grid, but they didn’t jump,” Jake’s voice came across. “One minute they were there, just outside the sanctuary, and then poof, they were gone.”

Dragons don’t poof.

It took a minute to pick the lock, but I eventually found my way in through the heavy wooden doors of the church. The stained glass windows were dark. It might almost be dawn, but the heavy snow outside made it seem closer to midnight.

There was no scent in the church, so I moved back outside, locking the doors as I left. That’s when I saw several sets of human tracks to the right. The weird thing was, they went into an alley and then disappeared.

What the hell?

I backtracked and followed the trail again. I picked up the lightest scent of smoke, and then nothing.

I pushed the comm again. “Do you guys see anything?”

“Negative.” I could hear Jake typing furiously. “Wait. To your—”

Before he could finish the sentence, a chill slithered down my spine. I sensed them around the corner. Pulling the crossbow from my back, I walked out of the alley and into the street.

Six beings stood thirty yards ahead, facing me. Two dragons holding on to four human women.

My brother, Bailey, is a big John Wayne fan, and I’ve been forced to watch many Westerns. As the dragons and I stared down the street at one another, it felt like I was in one of those cowboy movies.

“That’s a crime punishable by death.” I pointed to the four women they’d shoved to the side.

The largest dragon was familiar. His long green hair flowed down to his waist, and I recognized him from the day before as one of the Kevans.

His second-in-command was a gryphon. I could tell from the long talons on his claws. The gryphons weren’t able to transform all the way into human form.

Lifting the crossbow, I aimed for the gryphon’s brain.

The Kevan grabbed one of the two blondes and shoved the point of a large blade into her throat.

“Lose the weapon, or she dies,” the dragon ordered.

My left eyebrow rose of its own accord. “Collateral damage.” There was no way I’d let the women die, but he didn’t have to know that. “Want to explain to me why you’re kidnapping a bunch of defenseless women?”

College coeds, if I guessed right. They had that girls-night-out look about them. Correction: girls-night-out-gone-bad look about them.

“Guardian, stand down.”

I made a clicking sound with my tongue. “Not going to happen. Listen, you let go of her, and I’ll let you live at least till I get you back to Xerxes.”

Greenie roared and pulled the woman up by her hair. Her feet dangled in the air, and her shrill screams pierced the silence. I couldn’t blame her—the pain of being held like that had to be excruciating.

Squinting just a bit in the darkness, I cleared my mind and took the shot. The arrow sailed through the air in a millisecond and went right through his eye and into his brain before he knew what hit him. He fell back, taking the woman with him.

The gryphon’s wings appeared out of nowhere as he launched himself at me. Before I could even react, talons dug deep into my chest and knocked the breath out of me. All gryphons had poisoned claws, and I could feel the paralyzing fluid coursing through my blood.

Ouch.
I had to move fast if I wanted any chance of living.

Luckily he wasn’t as big as his Kevan friend, and I shoved my feet into his groin area. At least that part of him was human enough. It did the trick, and he howled as he fell to the side.

I didn’t have enough breath to get up, but I rolled over, grabbed my knife from my waist, and jabbed it through his eye.

The gryphon died instantly, but I was stuck gazing up into the snowflakes falling from the dark clouds above. I hated these kinds of surreal moments. I tried to move my ear to my shoulder so I could press the comm to call Jake, but the poison moved too fast.

“Oh my God. You saved us.” The blonde who’d been picked up by the Kevan knelt beside me. Taking off her coat, she shoved it against my chest. Her face was white with shock, and I was impressed she could speak at all. “I’m a nursing student, but I’m a first year, and I don’t know what the hell to do. I’m trying to stop the bleeding. Can you move? Wait, don’t move. Your neck or spine—”

“No.” My vocal cords still worked, but just barely. I heard a strange noise and moved my eyes to the left. The gargoyles. I was in front of the old pub. How had that happened? It was as if the entire building had moved itself a half block down. “Bang on the door there. There’s a man who can help me.” The words sounded hoarse even to me.

Before she could move, the door opened and Mr. McMurphy shuffled over. “Lass, help me bring her inside. I know what to do.”

The nurse shook her head. “She needs to go to the hospital right away. She’s paralyzed. Probably some kind of neck or spine injury.” She bit her lip when she realized she might have said too much. “Sorry. They drugged us, and I’m not thinking clearly. I’m sure you’ll be fine, but we shouldn’t move you until—”

“Do what he says, please. He knows how to deal with this.” I cut my eyes to the right.

After taking a quick glance at the gryphon’s claws sticking up in the air, she motioned to her friends. “Come help me.” Between the four of them they managed to get me inside, but not without bumping my head on the table where they put me down.

“Shannon, watch it. Jeez,” the nurse chastised.

“I lost my grip. She’s so cold,” the other girl grunted out.

That was my body’s natural way of dealing with deep wounds. As my internal temperature dropped, the blood flow slowed.

Mr. McMurphy was behind the bar mixing liquids from various bottles there. Didn’t look like he was making a martini; more like a potion.

“Listen.” My voice was no more than a whisper, and the nurse leaned down so she could hear me. “You guys need to get to the hospital. I don’t know what kind of drug they gave you, but the longer it’s in your system, the worse it’s going to be.”

She shook her head. “We aren’t leaving you here.”

“I’ll be okay.” It took a big effort to swallow. I closed my eyes. “Do this all the time. Please go.”

“Ah, lass, sounds like they pulled a fast one on you.” Mr. McMurphy stood beside me. He sprinkled a powdery substance on the open wounds, and the blood stopped pouring from my chest.

Putting his frail hand under my neck, he lifted my head up and held a shot glass filled with amber liquid to my mouth. “Drink up, love. You’ll be surprised how fast this will work.”

“Look, mister. The last thing she needs right now is alcohol.” The nurse shook her finger at him.

Mr. McMurphy gave her look that stopped her cold. “I’ve been taking care of the sick and injured since before your father was born, young lady.”

The liquid burned my throat, heating my body as it went down. Before it hit my stomach, I could wiggle my fingers. “Holy crap. What the hell kind of cocktail is that?” My voice had regained strength, and I laughed.

The nurse stared at me wide-eyed as I sat up.

“Whew.” I held my head. “Little dizzy.”

I remembered I’d left a mess out in the street. I sat cross-legged for a minute and tried to get my bearings.

“Mr. M, you rock.” My chest still hurt like hell, but I could move. Stretching my arms above my head, I winced. Looking down, I saw bone. Damn, I’d need some stitches for sure.

I glanced back to see that he had handed each of the women a shot glass. He didn’t say a word, just stared at them. They looked over at me, and I nodded.

“One, two, three,” the nurse said, and they all chugged it down at the same time. After coughing for a short period, they sat down simultaneously.

“Antidote,” he told them, then held out a hand to me. “The same poison that took her down is what they gave you ladies, only in a lower dose. It slows down your responses and makes you feel like you’re drunk. You’ll have a banger of a headache for most of tomorrow, but you’ll be fine.”

He turned to me. “Now, what are we going to do about those things outside?”

CHAPTER 9

When we opened the door, we found Gilly standing there with one very green-looking Jake. His head was bent over, and he was emptying his belly of whatever he’d had for dinner the night before.

“What’s wrong with him?” I couldn’t keep from smiling. Always such a force of nature, it was funny to see him weak at the knees.

“Doesn’t seem to like traveling faster than the speed of light.” Gilly glanced back at him and then at me. She looked like one of those sexy drawings of warrior women in comic books, all in leather and with her sword at the ready.

“Well, you came ready to party.” I laughed.

Gilly sheathed her sword. “Your vitals fell really low, and then you disappeared off the grid. I happened to be in the control room with Jake. He insisted on coming with me. We were worried you bit the big one.”

I grunted. “Not likely. Though it was a little too close for comfort, even for me.” I explained about the dragon and the gryphon, both of which were still in the middle of the street. “If it hadn’t been for Mr. McMurphy and them”—I waved a hand to the women peeking out the door—“I probably would be eating dirt about now.”

Gilly grimaced. “Thank you for looking after the brat.” She nodded toward me. Then she held out her hand to Mr. McMurphy. “It’s nice to meet you.”

His eyes lit up. “Ah, another of the Caruthers girls. Your parents have raised you well.” He shook her hand. “And you are a powerful one. Great strength in you.”

She looked back at me, and I shrugged. “He’s been around a while, and he’s seen a lot.”

Mr. McMurphy chuckled. “Aye, lass, I have.”

I frowned at the lumps in the snow. “We need to get this mess cleaned up. Jake, if you’re feeling up to it, could you please get these women a taxi?”

He gave me an evil look but nodded. I had a feeling he wasn’t happy about losing his cookies in front of me, but hey, it happened to the best of us.

I told the women good-bye and thanked them for helping me.

“Please,” the blonde said. “If it hadn’t been for you, God knows what those men would have done to us.”

Men?

I glanced over at Mr. M, and he winked at me. Something in the drink he’d given them had messed with their memory. They didn’t see the dragon and the gryphon for the monsters they were.

“We’re safe,” I said to them, “and that’s what matters.”

Jake led the women down the block, a safe distance away from where any prying eyes could see what we were doing. Gilly helped me get the dragon and gryphon ready to transport back to the house.

“You seem to have everything under control,” Mr. McMurphy said. “These old bones are tired, and it’s time for me to turn in.” He glanced at me. “Young lady, you make sure those healers get those wounds taken care of, or you’ll have some nasty scars.”

Before he could turn around, I reached out and hugged him. “I’m pretty sure you saved my life tonight. Thank you.”

“ ’Tis my duty.” He squeezed me back. “I know you have questions. You come back and see me soon.”

I waved good-bye. “I will.”

I held on to the dragon with one hand and grabbed the gryphon’s claw with the other. “Okay,” I said to Gilly. “Can you get Jake back?”

Gilly snorted. “After his first trip, he may opt to take a commercial flight home. Though I doubt he has his passport on him, so that could be a problem.”