She tightened her grip around his and silently hoped he didn’t say the one thing she couldn’t stand to hear just then. Sorry.
It was a long pause before he spoke.
“I want one thing perfectly clear,” he said, “it is Uncle Griffen. Uncle Grifter sounds too much like a bad forties cartoon character.”
Val laughed and dropped his hand. She reached out and affectionately smacked Griffen on the back of the head. Griffen somehow managed not to get knocked out of the chair.
“I can’t believe you just said that,” she said.
“Yeah, I’m pretty unbelievable.”
Griffen took her hand again and looked over to her face.
“You know that it’ll be all right. I’ll be here for you. God, Val, I should have been here for you from the beginning, and you should have known that. Lizzy I can understand, kind of. But this . . .”
“I did know that, but you had to be here for a lot of other people, too. And I had to be here for you.”
“Family comes first, Valerie . . . Or at least, you come first.”
“And what about this?” She touched her hand lightly to her stomach. “Does this family come first?”
This time, he didn’t pause for a moment.
“Yeah. If you have decided to keep it, then I’m Uncle Griffen. And if I kill his father, we won’t tell him till his sixteenth birthday.”
“I get dibs.”
“We’ll talk.”
The two shared a glance, and Griffen gave back Valerie’s hand. Then he reached out and smacked her on the back of the head.
“Hey! What was that for?” Valerie said
She smacked him back, on the shoulder. She didn’t want to give him a concussion.
“For the ‘this is my fight’ routine when you are pregnant? Getting bashed around a ballroom is not motherly behavior,” Griffen said.
“Like I had much choice?”
“Not knocking me out of the way and keeping me from the fight sounds like a pretty valid choice to me,” he said.
Valerie sighed.
“Yeah, well, maybe next time,” she said.
“Next time?!”
Valerie smiled at his shocked tone. She shrugged.
“Truth be told, I expected her to go for the stomach a lot more. Guess she really was conflicted over the whole mess.”
“You expected it, and still jumped into the deep end without looking. You got lucky, sis, real lucky.”
“Me and you both, brother. Luck seems to be keeping us afloat these days. Almost as much as skill. Must be in the blood.”
“Dragons’ luck? Would explain a few things,” Griffen said.
The two lapsed into silence again. Valerie looked over at her brother, and saw the deep frown. He shook his head, a little too hard, and she watched him force the expression away. Though he couldn’t completely hide the look of concern in his eyes.
“I just can’t let it go. Why, Valerie? Why keep this much from me?”
“I thought I had to. Mai pointed out how much trouble you were in right then.”
“You told Mai instead of me?” Griffen didn’t try to hide his surprise.
“No, she figured it out and came to me. I would have probably told you if we hadn’t talked. But she made a lot of sense.”
“Did she now . . . ?”
Griffen looked back up at the clouds, eyes narrowing ever so slightly. His sister knew him well enough to know that he was suddenly very angry with Mai. The two stared up at the sky together. Val broke the silence first.
“A puppy dog with one club foot.”
“What?” Griffen blinked, not sure where that came from.
“The cloud, stupid. It’s a puppy with a club foot. Pay attention,” Val said, grinning.
“You pay attention, it’s clearly a duck with a hat.”
“What kind of hat?”
“Cowboy hat.”
“You’re crazy, Big Brother. I think you are suffering from lack of alcohol.”
“Yeah, probably. How about we go out together?”
“Why not, it’s early. For this town.”
“Yeah. It’ll be nice not to have to worry about what supernatural nut I’ll run into at my favorite watering hole,” Griffen said.
The two stood, and Valerie grabbed Griffen and hugged him as tight as she could. He didn’t comment as his back popped, just hugged her back fiercely. She let him go finally, smiling hugely, and turned toward the gate.
“But!” he called after her, “strictly nonalcoholic beverages for you!”
“Ah! He’s nagging already! I knew no good deed went unpunished!”
The two laughed and headed out into the night.
Epilogue
It was a small clinic, tucked away far from the tourist areas of the Quarter. It was the kind of place that really didn’t ask questions. Run by the kind of doctors who didn’t care about their patients’ pasts, but were just worried about making sure they had a future. Mose had surprised Griffen by telling him just how much their gambling organization contributed yearly to the clinic. It and several other shady groups in the city.
You never knew when you might need such a place.
One of Mose’s people, or Griffen’s people depending on how one counted, sat in the lobby. His instructions were plain: call up the line if anything happened, and don’t interfere. He wasn’t told any more than that, or any less.
A long, black car pulled up in front of the clinic. The type of car that never, ever got seen on this side of town. Not even passing through. Three men, built strong and solid, stepped out of the car. They all looked professional, dressed in suits cut just big enough to hide the bulge under each of their jackets. Yet they also seemed to have a family resemblance.
Next out of the car was a short, round woman who still seemed just as solid as the boys. Her face was fleshy and plain, but her eyes were sharp as a hawk’s. Even out in the street, the man inside could tell that she was watching everything. This was someone he would never, ever play cards with, and that was how he made his living.
The four of them came into the clinic. They didn’t stop to ask for directions. They didn’t pay any attention to anyone but watched everyone just the same. The woman seemed to lead, even though two of the men stood in front of her and the third just behind.
They walked to the room Griffen’s man had been told to watch. Didn’t knock, didn’t hesitate, just went on inside. He pulled out his cell, put out the call, and did not interfere. Orders were orders, and he was glad for these ones. He had thought it was the woman inside the room he had to worry about.
Inside, Lizzy lay on a hospital bed, and even in the dim light, she looked awful. Her face was a collection of bruises. Gauze was packed over one eye and wrapped around her head. Most of her was hidden by a blanket, but at least one leg was in a cast and an IV provided a constant drip of painkillers.
She stirred, seeming half-conscious, and her good eye rolled for a few moments before tracking, even the fractured colors in it appearing pale and sickly. When it caught sight of the woman standing just inside the doorway, it widened. Lizzy tried to sit up and groaned, falling back in bed.
Her voice was soft, quiet. A wounded-kitten voice.
“M-m-mmmother?” she stammered.
Melinda stepped up to the bed and picked up the chart hanging off the end of it. With one hand on the bed rail, she read it while her fingers tapped a slow rhythm. Her anger apparent only in the force of her drumming fingers, which were slowly denting the metal.
She put down the chart, and her voice was molten iron as she spoke two simple words that made her daughter flinch and try to curl in on herself.
“What. Happened?”
ROBERT (LYNN) ASPRIN, born in 1946, is best known for the Myth Adventures and Phule series. He also edited the groundbreaking Thieves’ World anthologies with Lynn Abbey. He died at his home in New Orleans in May 2008.
Luck
Dragons Luck Page 33