Smoke (The Slayer Chronicles Book 1)

by Val St. Crowe

  “Look, there can’t be a cure,” I said. “When the shift happens, the human part of a rogue is destroyed. Killed. It’s gone. It’s not coming back.”

  He sighed. “There has to be something that you might like to do, then. Some way that I could make sure that you were doing all right.”

  “What?” I sat up straight. Now, the alcohol was starting to make me feel angry. It did that sometimes. Another reason it was best to practice moderation.

  “I want to help you, Clarke. It doesn’t seem right, all the things you’ve been through. Now, my life hasn’t been a picnic either, but I’ve at least had the means to live comfortably, and I think you deserve that too. I’ve been to your apartment, and I know the way you live—”

  “The way I live?” I said. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing,” he said. “I didn’t mean… You’re proud. I get it. But I’m not offering you a handout. I want to find work for you. I want you to earn money. I can’t see why you’d object to that.”

  “I don’t need you to give me a job,” I said.

  He sighed. “I didn’t mean to offend you.”

  I just glared at him. “Why I thought that it could be possible for you and I to have a drink together is beyond me. You are… insufferable.” I got up out of my chair and lurched forward.

  He was up in a second, hand on my shoulder to steady me.

  I shoved him off. “Don’t touch me.” Were my words slurring? Hell.

  “Please, don’t be this way, Clarke,” he said. “I take it back. I should have known better than to—”

  “Stop.” I put my finger in his face. “I don’t want to hear your voice anymore.”

  He sighed again.

  I drew in a deep breath, and then managed to take fairly steady strides across the room and out the door. Once out of the bar, however, I needed to cling to the wall to stay upright.

  * * *

  Back in my room, I splashed water on my face. I felt incredibly drunk. I needed to drink some water, or else I was going to be crazy hungover tomorrow. I sat by the sink and filled glass after glass with water. Down the hatch it went. I drank water until my stomach was bloated with it.

  And I still felt drunk and out of it. I didn’t like that. I was wary. I was vulnerable. I thought of a rogue dragon coming through the glass doors that opened onto my own little porch outside. Glass would shatter everywhere, and the dragon would fly in, snarling, smoke coming from its nostrils. And I would struggle to even load my bow, because I’d be so damned out of it.

  Sometimes, when I was really wasted, an icy cold shower made me feel more alert. Maybe it would help this time.

  I took off all my clothes and turned on the water.

  I stepped into the cold spray.

  I yelped.

  It was freezing, and goosebumps puckered all over my skin. I forced myself to put my head underneath the spray. My teeth started to chatter.

  But.

  I did feel more alert. I made myself stay in the shower for several more minutes before I couldn’t handle it anymore. And then I got out and wrapped myself in one of the hotel towels, which was actually kind of skimpy sized.

  While I was using all the towels in the bathroom to get dry, I began to think about my behavior back at the bar.

  Had that been warranted?

  The truth was, I didn’t like the idea of being a burden on anyone. I knew about burdens. My sister Gina? I loved her. I’d always love her. She was family. But she was a burden. I needed to take care of her, and I didn’t resent that, but she made my life hell sometimes.

  I never wanted to be a burden to anyone else.

  So, when he started going on about wanting to give me a job? It just rubbed me the wrong way. I didn’t want him to feel as if he needed to do something like that for me.

  But maybe he was right. It wasn’t as if he was offering me a handout. Instead, he was trying to give me a job.

  Now, that stuff about the cure? That was crap. There was no cure. But if Naelen Spencer wanted to find me a job, one that paid okay, maybe I would be an idiot to turn that down. Hell, maybe I owed him an apology.

  I got dressed again and pulled my sopping hair into a ponytail. I pounded on the door to our adjoining rooms, but he didn’t answer. He was probably still back at the bar.

  So, I padded down the hallway to the lobby and back into the bar.

  At first, I didn’t see Naelen anywhere. He wasn’t sitting where we’d been sitting. That area was empty now.

  But then I did see him. He was on the opposite end of the room, sitting at a table with a woman with red hair. The woman was laughing at something he’d said, and he was leaning across the table toward her, grinning and talking in a low voice. They looked awfully cozy.

  Something told me that now wasn’t the best time to talk to him. He was busy. He was flirting with that woman.

  I looked her over. She was wearing a pantsuit. She had long, dangling silver earrings and artfully applied makeup. She was the kind of woman that Naelen belonged with.

  Hadn’t I already told myself that there was no way things could work between Naelen and me? We were all wrong for each other.

  I couldn’t be jealous of this woman.

  Couldn’t be.

  I went back to my room. But I didn’t sleep right away. Instead, I stared at the ceiling for a long time.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  I’d been up late, and drinking to boot, and everyone knows that drunk sleep isn’t good sleep, so I slept late into the morning, only waking up when I heard a woman’s shrill voice through the wall.

  I couldn’t make out what she was saying, but she sounded angry.

  For a moment, I was disoriented, waking up here, but then I put everything together, and realized that the woman who was being shrill was in the room with Naelen.

  I got out of bed and went over to the adjoining door. Now, her voice was clear enough that I could make it out.

  “Are you serious?” she was saying.

  Naelen responded. “I’m trying to be honest. I don’t see the point in lying to you about it and then disappointing you later. I don’t want your number because I don’t plan to call you. Would it be better if I lied to you about that?”

  “It would be better if you hadn’t brought me back to your room last night,” she said. “I thought we had fun together.”

  “We did,” he said.

  “But you’re not interested in seeing where this goes?”

  “You live in Virginia,” he said. “I split my time between Maryland and New York. It would go absolutely nowhere. I knew that the minute we started to talk.”

  “But you brought me back here anyway,” she said. “You bastard.”

  “I’m sorry you feel that way,” said Naelen mildly. “For what it’s worth, I’ll always think of you fondly.”

  “Oh, stick it up your ass,” she said.

  The door to Naelen’s room opened and then slammed shut.

  I hurried over to look out the peephole. Yup, same redhead from last night.

  The door to Naelen’s room opened again, and he came out into the hallway. “Listen, I really am sorry if I misled you.”

  She flipped him off. Then she hurried down the hallway.

  He sighed heavily and pulled the door shut.

  I waited for a minute and then I scampered over to the adjoining door and banged on it.

  He opened it immediately. “You heard that.”

  “Oh, I heard everything,” I said. “Luckily, I slept through the main event last night, but you might want to reconsider bringing girls back here. The walls are thin.”

  He grimaced. “I’m sorry you had to witness that.”

  I shrugged. “It’s all right.” I didn’t mind watching him squirm. And even though I was attracted to Naelen, at least physically, this entire situation only made it clear I’d made the right choice staying away from him thus far. I didn’t even feel jealous anymore. Just sort of proud of myself for avoidin
g a land mine.

  He cleared his throat. “We slept late. We better get moving,” he said, switching gears.

  “You’re right,” I said. “But I don’t know what it is we’re going to do today. Asking people if they’ve seen Reign doesn’t seem to be getting us anywhere.”

  “Well, we’ll talk about that over breakfast,” he said.

  “It’s late. I don’t even know if there is any breakfast to be had.”

  “We’ll go back to that diner,” he said. “The menu said all-day breakfast.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  * * *

  “Well, I’m sorry about all of that,” he said as we waited for our breakfast. He’d ordered pancakes and sausage. I’d ordered a cheese omelet and hash browns. “I don’t know why that always happens to me.”

  “What are you talking about?” I said.

  “I always seem to attract needy women is all,” he said.

  I arched an eyebrow. “Needy?”

  “Yeah, I don’t know what it is, but practically every woman I take to bed gets all bent out of shape that I haven’t somehow fallen head over heels for her in the short time we’ve spent together. I don’t understand what it is they’re thinking. Generally speaking, we’ve only spent a few alcohol-sodden hours in each other’s company, and that’s no basis for a relationship.”

  I gaped at him. I really had no idea how to respond to that.

  “I don’t know how I get myself into these situations.”

  The waitress came by and brought us coffee.

  I picked up three packets of sugar and ripped off the tops. Then I dumped them in my coffee. “I think you end up in those situations when you take women home from the bar.”

  “Well, naturally,” he said. “But it’s not as if I go out looking for these women or anything. I might strike up a conversation to be friendly, but that’s all.”

  I opened a creamer and dumped that in too. “So, they all throw themselves at you? All women who you take home are just begging for it?” I was a teensy bit sarcastic at this point.

  He sighed. “Of course I’m not saying that either. It’s not as if I don’t want to sleep with them. I do, of course. But it all just… happens. It’s like a blur. I don’t know how I end up doing it. And then I’m waking up in the morning with some woman trying to get me to propose.”

  I stirred my coffee. “She was right, you know. You really are a bastard.”

  “Why?” He sounded genuinely confused.

  “Because you lead these women on and then you drop them,” I said.

  “I don’t lead them on,” he said.

  “You sleep with them.”

  “Yes, but not because I want to form… bonds with them.”

  I took a sip of my coffee. “You have a very problematic understanding of women.”

  “What? I do not. It’s because they aren’t dragons.” He sighed. “It’s a different culture. Dragons are casual about sex until they meet their mates. Then they’re monogamous and committed, but not before. Humans, vampires, even drakes. You’re all caught up in this idea of choosing to commit to someone. Well, I’m never going to do that. I don’t want to be tied down.”

  “Never?” I said. “Not even if you met the right girl?”

  “Didn’t I tell you that I fully intended to fight the mating bond?”

  I guessed he had said something about that. “Well, but what if you met someone you really liked? A person you just wanted to be around all the time?”

  “Well, then, that person would be a friend,” he said.

  “What if you were sexually attracted to that friend?” I said.

  “I would suggest that the two of us screw each other’s brains out and get it out of our systems and then go back to being friends,” he said.

  “You think that would work?” I said. “You don’t think that would make it all more complicated?”

  “I don’t see what would be complicated about it,” he said. “It’s just sex.”

  I drank more coffee.

  “You don’t agree?” he said.

  I blushed a little. “Uh…” I unwrapped my silverware, which was swathed in a napkin. “I’m not really into having casual sex.”

  “Okay,” he said. “But you don’t have boyfriend.” He leaned forward. “You don’t have a boyfriend, do you?”

  “No,” I said, laughing a little.

  “So, then what kind of sex do you have?” he said.

  My face seemed to get hotter. I set my fork down next to my plate and then picked it up and set it back down again, trying to get it perfectly straight. “You can’t ask me something like that. It’s personal.”

  “I don’t mean it in a personal way,” he said. “I’m only curious. You don’t have to be embarrassed.” But something in his tone had shifted. His voice was a little deeper, more intimate.

  I swallowed. I raised my gaze to his and quickly looked away. “Look, I only sleep with a man if I’m in a committed relationship.” Which wasn’t actually true, since whatever it was that I’d had with Logan couldn’t really be classified that way, but whatever.

  “Really?” he said, sounding surprised. “Wow.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  He leaned across the table, speaking more quietly. “Do you find you miss it?”

  “Miss what? Sex?”

  He nodded. “What if you didn’t have a relationship for, I don’t know, months?”

  I laughed. “Is it unfathomable for you to think of not having sex for months?”

  “You go months? Months without doing… anything?”

  I squirmed. “Is this another dragon thing? Are dragons really horny or something?”

  “Well…” He shrugged. He took a drink of his own coffee, which was black. “I don’t know. Once the bond takes hold, people generally can’t keep their hands off each other. My parents were horrible. Hell, they still are horrible. They joke about it all the time, and it just disgusts me. But I suppose I did learn to be rather open about sexuality, not ashamed of it from that.”

  “I guess that’s interesting,” I said.

  “So, going months is not a big deal for you?”

  I picked up my spoon and set it next to my fork. “This is really none of your business.”

  “It makes you uncomfortable to talk about it?”

  “Let’s just say there’s nothing to talk about and leave it at that.”

  “Oh, I don’t know, Clarke, that seems like a shame. Really, you’re very lovely, and I think that it must be sort of frustrating—”

  “I’d rather be frustrated than treated the way you treat women,” I snapped. I was annoyed at how my heart had leapt when he called me lovely. How could I possibly be attracted to man like this?

  “I guarantee you, I treat women quite well. I do my best to please them. I’m not a selfish lover. And I always make sure that they have a way home in the morning and I make sure to pay for their drinks and—”

  “But you hurt them,” I said, thinking of Logan, thinking of my empty bed on more mornings than I liked to count, when we’d both gone to sleep the night before in each other’s arms. “You might not realize it, Naelen, but there is an unspoken promise in taking a woman to bed. If you really don’t want there to be anything between you and the woman you’re trying to shag, I think you need to be upfront about that.”

  “Really?” He mused over that. “You mean tell her before we sleep together that I have no intention of kindling any kind of relationship?”

  “Yes,” I said. “And if she still goes home with you after that, well, then she’s asking for it.”

  He laughed. “All right, then. I’ll try that.” He smiled at me. “Thank you for the tip.”

  I blushed again. “Can we talk about something else? Anything else?”

  “Like what?” He took another drink of coffee.

  “Like how we’re going to find Reign.”

  “Well, you’re the one with the ideas about that,” he said. “I don�
��t know what to do at all.”

  I chewed on my lip. “We’re getting nowhere asking about her and showing that picture. But she was supposed to be going to a party. A party hosted by someone named Ronald or something like that. Anyway, maybe we should ask about the party. Maybe people will remember a whole bunch of out-of-towners partying around here. It seems like it might be out of the ordinary.”

  “All right,” said Naelen.

  “That’s assuming that they even had a party,” I said. “Maybe they told Reign it was a party, but it was all a lie.”

  “If anyone would know about parties, it would be the police,” said Naelen.

  “True,” I said. “I guess that’s our first stop.”

  * * *

  Deputy Jimmy Smith squinted at the picture of Reign. “No, sir, I can’t say I’ve ever seen her. I’m sorry.” He handed the phone back to Naelen.

  I couldn’t tell whether he was lying or not. He seemed pretty sure of himself, but maybe he was better at lying than some of the other people in town.

  “From what we understand,” I said, “she came here to go to a party a few weeks ago. Do you remember any complaints about noise or anything like that around that time period?”

  The deputy looked at me. “Uh… well, no I don’t think so. But it all kind of runs together. Let me go and look back over my reports. I keep everything filed by date.” He shuffled back behind the counter.

  The Highpoint Police Station wasn’t very big, and the only person who seemed to be working there at the time was Jimmy Smith.

  He came back with a folder full of computer printouts. “Uh, doesn’t look like there were any noise complaints then, no. Sorry about that.”

  “That’s okay,” I said. “Thanks for checking. We appreciate it.”

  “Sure thing,” said Jimmy. He scratched the bridge of his nose. “Listen, if you’re looking for a place where the kids sometimes throw parties, you might want to check out the old Trimball place. We’re always chasing kids out of there at night.”

  “What is the Trimball place?” asked Naelen.

  “Well, it’s an abandoned farm,” said Jimmy. “House is still standing. So’s the barn. Kids bring beer out there, crawl around the loft, climb all over the inside of the house. We can’t keep ‘em out. They broke out all the windows on the first floor. We tried to board ‘em up, but they get in one way or the other. Don’t know if it’ll be any help to you, but that’s really all I can think of.”