Fire Brand (City of Dragons Book 6)

by Val St. Crowe

“Zoning? What? I don’t understand what you’re talking about,” said Lachlan.

  Wyatt grabbed onto my pants and yanked himself up. He clung to my leg and started crying.

  Sighing, I reached down to pick him up. I began to walk and bounce him, making shushing noises. “It’s all my fault. It’s because I spoke about the eagleclaws, because I told dragons not to eat them, that they weren’t safe for anyone old enough to shift. I didn’t do it publicly, but I might as well have. I talked to dragons all over the city. I wanted the message out. But Eaglelinx traced the rumors back to me, and they’re pissed.”

  Wyatt howled even louder.

  “I don’t think he’s responding well to the fact that you’re upset,” said Lachlan.

  “Well, I can’t help being upset,” I said. “I don’t even know what we’d do without the hotel.”

  “Give me Wyatt.”

  “I’ve got him,” I said.

  “You’re making him cry because you’re stressed,” said Lachlan.

  “I’m not making him do anything.” I clutched the baby tighter.

  “Penny.” Lachlan grabbed me by the arm. He pulled me close and hugged both me and Wyatt at the same time. “Calm down,” he whispered. “Both of you.”

  I took a deep breath.

  And then another.

  Wyatt was still screaming.

  “I should nurse him,” I said. “It’s the only way he’s going to calm down.”

  “Okay,” said Lachlan, releasing us.

  I sat down, grabbed my nursing pillow, and got him latched on.

  Eaglelinx was a corporation who made candy. One of the candies they made was called an eagleclaw. It was marketed to children, which meant it was generally safe, because most dragons didn’t shift until they were well into puberty. However, if an adult dragon did eat the candy, it caused them to shift into their dragon form.

  Dragons needed to shift in water, because the shift was tough on our human form. The water tended to make it easier for the forms to slip in and out of each other. If we shifted out of water, it killed us. Destroyed our human form. All the was left was a dragon—and that dragon was a husk with no personality or thoughts or anything else. Those dragons were rogues.

  Not all rogues came from shifters who had eaten the candy, but some of them did. I wanted to stop people from eating eagleclaws so that there would be less rogues in the world. And also because I wanted to save my fellow dragon shifters. I didn’t want them to be hurt.

  We’d discovered all of this while we were working our last case. We’d thought it was a serial killer case, but it had turned out that the people were being killed by Eaglelinx to protect their secret. I had vowed that I would stop Eaglelinx and that I would keep them from continuing to profit off the death of dragon shifters.

  Thus far, I had been a little busy, so I hadn’t done much other than share what I knew with other dragon shifters. Eaglelinx, on the other hand, had taken the fight to me.

  “Penny?” said Lachlan.

  My head snapped up.

  “You think you can explain this to me now?”

  “Some guy showed up and said that there’s an ‘interested party’ lobbying to have this property rezoned as residential,” I said. I was still angry, but I was feeling calmer now. Sleepier. It was because I was breastfeeding. When my milk let down, I also got hit with some sort of hormone that made me feel like falling the heck asleep. It was great at night, but hell in the middle of the afternoon. “When I pressed him, he told me that it was Eaglelinx. And then he said that they’d drop it if I promised to keep my mouth shut about eagleclaws. I mean, not in so many words. He didn’t spell it out or anything, but it was pretty clear what he meant.”

  Lachlan raised his eyebrows. “Wow.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “If we lose this hotel, I don’t know what we’re going to do. I mean, there’s no way I could sell it for the amount I paid for it if it’s in a residential zone. I couldn’t even buy another hotel. I don’t know what I’d do with myself.”

  “Slow down, Penny,” said Lachlan. “You’re not going to lose the hotel.”

  “Well, I’m not keeping my mouth shut about eagleclaws. You should know me better than that.”

  He laughed. “I do know that. I wouldn’t expect you to. But before you freak out, why don’t you let me talk to someone about whether that kind of rezoning is even legal.”

  I blew out a noisy breath. “All right,” I said. “You think maybe they’re bluffing?”

  “Eaglelinx?” he said.

  “Yeah.”

  “Could be,” he said. “They’ve got a lot of weight to throw around. Maybe they think they can do whatever they want. But they can’t. We won’t let them.”

  “No,” I said. “We won’t.”

  * * *

  Felicity wrinkled up her nose. “I can’t believe you’re doing that. It’s so gross.”

  “It’s not any grosser than throwing them in the trash.” I was tossing Wyatt’s cloth diapers in the washer. We didn’t cloth diaper full time. When we left him with anyone else, we let them use disposables. Just easier that way. But when it was just Lachlan and me at home with him, we used the cloth diapers. I liked them mostly because I thought they were nicer against his sensitive baby skin, but it was a nice bonus that it was good for the planet.

  Of course, the planet was possibly going to be destroyed by the court of the Green King or whatever, so maybe pollution and landfills and everything else wasn’t going to matter.

  Anyway.

  “I think it’s gross,” said Felicity. “If I ever had a kid, there is no way I would go through that much effort. After you wash them, you have to fold them and put them away.”

  “You end up having to do laundry every couple days anyway with a baby,” I said, shrugging. “And you’re not ever having kids. Right?” I turned to her.

  She was shoving sheets into the washing machine. It was off season, and most of the hotel maids that I employed only worked for me from spring to fall. During the winter, I ran on a tiny staff, and Felicity chipped in with some of the tasks, even though she was strictly in management in the summer. She oversaw my entire maid staff. “No, I’m not having kids,” said Felicity. “I mean, I can’t. I’m a drake.”

  “True,” I said.

  “Scott did bring up adopting once, but I shut him down,” she said. “I’m not mother material. At all.”

  “You’re doing okay with Asia, though,” I said.

  “Well, I’m not her mom. Not even close.”

  “You’re like a stepmom.”

  “No.” Felicity shook her head. “No, I am not.”

  I laughed. “Well, you and Scott live together. So, you also live with Asia.”

  “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I’m a stepmom. I’m… the complete opposite of a stepmother. Stepmothers are all evil and nasty. I’m not like that.”

  “I know you’re not,” I said. “I didn’t mean like a fairy-tale stepmother.”

  Felicity shrugged. “I mean, okay, if I were going to have kids, I would have them with Scott.”

  “Really?” I shut the lid to the washer.

  “Don’t sound so surprised,” said Felicity. “He’s a great guy.”

  “I just… didn’t know you were so serious about him.” I checked the settings on the machine and changed the water temperature to hot.

  “I live with him.”

  “Well, but you lived with Jensen and you never said stuff like that about him.” I hit start on the washer.

  Felicity slammed her washer shut. “You bring Jensen up in every conversation that we have, do you realize this?”

  “I do not.” Maybe I did. I just… it upset me, because Felicity had used me in her lies to Jensen. She’d been out on dates with Scott and told Jensen that she was working. For me. And then when I’d been in labor and called looking for her, I’d had to back up her lie to Jensen when he had no idea where she was. That didn’t sit right with me. I kept thinking that it was out of
character for Felicity. And any guy who would make her act that way, well, I wasn’t sure about him.

  “Jensen was a vampire,” said Felicity. “There was no way we were having a kid.”

  “Right,” I said. “But Scott’s human, so that makes all the difference.”

  “It’s not simply because he’s human.”

  “Why is it? What is it about him that makes you so into him?”

  “I don’t know.” Felicity shrugged. “Look, I guess it’s like… he’s my first love.”

  “What? How could that be? You said you loved Jensen.”

  “God, you and Jensen.” She glared at me. “You know that I knew Scott way before I knew Jensen. I knew Scott before I was a drake.”

  “Yeah, but you were friends with him. You weren’t in love.”

  “Actually, I think I was,” she said. “I mean, I didn’t think I was allowed to feel things like that. I thought my life was over because I was a drake. So, I never let myself believe that Scott was being nice to me for any reason other than politeness. But it turns out that he was into me too. And I never encouraged him back then, so he gave up. We were meant to be, but we got in the way of that. So, now it’s like we have a second chance.”

  “You really think you were in love with him when you guys were teenagers?” I said.

  She nodded. “In a way, I was sort of being unfaithful to Scott with Jensen.”

  “Oh, come on, that’s pushing it,” I said.

  She laughed. “Okay, yeah. I was kind of a big ho. But I didn’t do anything with Scott—no kissing or anything like that—until I broke it off with Jensen. And anyway, I’ll always be grateful to Jensen, because he was the person that taught me that I could be desirable, that I didn’t have to think of myself as an unlovable drake.”

  “That’s a nice thought,” I said. “Does it make you feel less guilty?”

  She sighed. “What is this about, Penny, really? Because I don’t feel all that guilty about it, not until I talk to you about it. Then I feel like a scarlet woman or something.”

  I twisted my hands together. “I guess it doesn’t seem like something you would do. And I worry that means that you’re in danger somehow.”

  “How would that make me in danger?”

  “I don’t know. Anything that would make you act irrationally might get you hurt.”

  She cocked her head at me. “You know, maybe this is irrational. And maybe I will get hurt. But you have to realize that you can’t protect me from everything.”

  I hung my head. “I do realize that,” I told my shoes.

  “Yeah, right,” she said.

  “Well, I couldn’t handle it if anything happened to you,” I said, raising my gaze to hers. “I need you. You’re my best friend.” It had always been me and Felicity. We had been through a lot together. She was my nonromantic life partner.

  “And I need you too,” she said. “But if all you do is yell at me about my choices…”

  I sighed. “Right. That doesn’t make you want to be around me much.”

  “I know I screwed up. I know I shouldn’t have lied to Jensen. I was confused. I made a mistake.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, I’m sorry I’ve been so hard on you. It wasn’t fair. And if you really are that in love with Scott—”

  “I am,” she said.

  “Well, I promise to shut up about it from now on,” I said. “By the way, you still think he’s hiding something?”

  “Yes,” she said. “He’s worried about something, and I don’t know what. But he’s going to give himself an ulcer, I swear. I think it’s already causing health problems. I confronted him about it the other night, but he denied everything again. Said I shouldn’t worry about it.”

  “You’re sure something’s going on with him?”

  “Positive. And whatever it is, it’s really bad.”

  * * *

  Dashiell Reid was skinny and wearing a t-shirt that had a picture of Smurfs on it. He unfurled his wings and then folded them back in. “Who are you guys?”

  “I’m Detective Lachlan Flint,” said Lachlan. We were standing outside Dashiell’s apartment. “This is my associate, Penny Caspian. We’d like to ask you a few questions regarding the incident with Beckett James Stanley.”

  “Questions? Like what kind of questions?” Dashiell tapped his foot absently.

  “Well, just to get an idea of your relationship with him, what he was like that last night. You were one of the last people to see him alive.”

  “Why?” said Dashiell. “What does that matter?”

  “It might be helpful to us in our investigation,” said Lachlan.

  “But what are you even investigating?” said Dashiell.

  “His murder,” I said.

  “Oh,” said Dashiell. He tapped his forefinger against his chin. “Right. I guess that makes sense.”

  Lachlan shot me a glance.

  I was just as flabbergasted. What was up with this guy?

  Dashiell sucked air noisily in through his nose. He rubbed his nostrils with the back of his hand. “So, uh, what did you want to ask me?”

  “Well, you seem to have had a relationship with your father, and that’s not necessarily typical amongst gargoyles,” I said. “Can you talk to us a little bit about how he became part of your life?”

  “I hunted him down,” said Dashiell. “After my mom told me who my dad was, I had to meet him, right? I mean, he was Beckett fucking Stanley. He’s a gargoyle hero and all that shit. I was all in awe of him back then.”

  “Not anymore?” I said.

  “Well, he didn’t even remember my mother,” said Dashiell. “Apparently, being a bigtime gargoyle activist means you get laid a lot. He basically banged everything that came near him. He probably has hundreds of kids.” He drew his eyebrows together. He had started tapping his toe again.

  “I guess that was disappointing for you?” Lachlan said.

  “Hell yeah, it was disappointing. I mean, here I was hero-worshiping the jackass and he wasn’t anything more than a horndog who didn’t give a shit about my mom or about me or anything.”

  “But you did visit him at the hospital?” I said.

  Dashiell shoved his hands in his pockets. “Well, uh, yeah. I mean, he wasn’t all bad. After he found out who I was, he was interested in seeing me sometimes. Liked to keep tabs on what I was up to, that kind of thing. I guess none of his other kids sought him out, and he didn’t even know how to find them.” He tapped his hands against his outer thigh. “You know, that’s maybe the next thing some activist should take on, you know? Gargoyle family structure? ‘Cause it’s way fucked.”

  It had its strengths and its weaknesses, like anything else. I could see how it wasn’t always fair to men, though. Lachlan didn’t like it much either. But neither he nor I voiced any agreement with Dashiell.

  “So, the night that you saw him last,” said Lachlan, “the night he died, what did the two of you talk about?”

  Dashiell shrugged. “Nothing really.”

  “Nothing?”

  Dashiell nodded.

  “Did he seem okay to you?” I said.

  “Well, he was sick. That was why he was in the hospital,” said Dashiell.

  “But did he seem any worse than he had the last time you saw him?” said Lachlan. “Did it seem as if he’d already been given the injection that would kill him?”

  “Oh, whoa…” Dashiell’s lips parted. “You think that could have happened? Someone had already shot him up with that stuff when I went in?”

  “Apparently, Periklur has a variable amount of time before it begins working. For some, it’s instantaneous. For others, it takes a bit of time to take hold,” said Lachlan. “So, it’s possible, yes, that the murderer had already been in the room when you got there.”

  “Man.” Dashiell looked a little ill.

  “When you entered the room, Beckett’s niece Paloma was there?” I said.

  “Yeah,” said Dashiell.

  “How did s
he seem?”

  “Same as always,” said Dashiell. “She was always there with her uncle. He liked her a lot, I guess. I think it would have been cool if he liked me that much, but he didn’t. She was nosy, though. She wanted to stay in the room while I visited with my dad. I told her to get the hell out. She still wouldn’t, but my dad told her to go, and she got all sulky and left.” He tapped his feet against the floor. “Hey, you don’t think she did it, do you?”

  “Was there any strain in her relationship with your father?” said Lachlan.

  Dashiell laughed. “Man, you do think she did it.”

  “We’re pursuing all our options,” said Lachlan. “Everyone who entered that room that night had opportunity.”

  “Wait a second, I entered that room,” said Dashiell.

  “Yes, you did,” I said.

  “So, I’m a suspect, then?” said Dashiell.

  “You did have opportunity,” said Lachlan. “But we don’t have a set of official suspects yet.”

  “I didn’t kill him,” said Dashiell.

  “Of course not,” said Lachlan.

  “You should take me off your suspect list now,” said Dashiell. “I wanted him alive. I wanted him to be my dad. That’s all I wanted from him.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  I fastened a bib around Wyatt’s neck. He was sitting at a high chair in the Pink Flamingo Cafe, which was right down the street from my hotel. It was a cafe owned by my friend Ophelia, who was a mage. She and I had a deal going where she made a continental breakfast available for my hotel guests.

  Pre-Wyatt, I came here every morning for breakfast, taking advantage of that breakfast buffet. Heck, I used to come here for a lunch a lot too. But now, with a baby, going to a restaurant was more of an ordeal, and we only came out for breakfast every two weeks or so.

  Lachlan was cutting a piece of toast into tiny, tiny pieces for Wyatt. I poured water into his sippy cup from my water glass and started cutting up some eggs into bite size pieces too.

  “He should have some fruit,” I said to Lachlan. “Some of those melons, maybe?”

  “Got it,” said Lachlan, getting up and heading over to the buffet.

  I finished cutting up the toast. Instead of giving Wyatt a plate, we spread the toast and eggs out on a placemat. Wyatt would just knock the plate on the floor. In fact, a lot of the food we were giving him was going to end up on the floor, too. That was what Wyatt did. Apparently, he was investigating to see what would happen. He was discovering gravity or whatever. Still, it was messy.