“Maybe to you it isn’t.” The light changed.
He took off again.
I studied him in profile. Did he really feel like that? Like a predator?
That made me feel a little bit itchy under my skin. I twisted my hands together in my lap.
We were quiet for the rest of the drive.
CHAPTER FIVE
I blinked. “Melinda Irwin?” I said in disbelief.
Melinda Irwin was standing in my lobby. She was flanked by two other women I didn’t recognize, but there she was, all decked out in her pink pedal-pusher pants with a cardigan tied around her shoulders. She was twisting her hands together, and she looked uncomfortable. “Is there somewhere we could talk?” she said. She lowered her voice. “Privately?”
“Um, I guess my office,” I said. “Follow me.” I started down the hall, glancing over my shoulder to make sure that Melinda and her friends were following. What the hell was she doing here?
Melinda and I were about the same age. She and I had been childhood friends, but her destined mate had been another of our childhood friends, Paul Irwin. The two had been all over each other right after coming of age, and they’d started having children young. Maybe because of that, they’d been extremely lucky. They had three children, which was practically unheard of in a dragon family. It was hard for dragons to conceive or to carry to term.
Anyway, I never expected to see Melinda again, especially not all the way down here in the south side of Sea City.
I opened the door to my office and gestured them inside.
The three women came inside and stood together in a clump, gazing around at the surroundings uneasily.
I shut the door. “Uh, have a seat.” I had a couch that sat against the wall and faced my desk.
They all looked at the couch, looked at me, and then gingerly sat down.
I folded my arms over my chest. “What’s going on?”
“I’m sorry I haven’t gotten in touch before, Penny,” said Melinda. “I know that things have been… hard for you.”
“This is a social call?” I said. Because I was fairly sure that no respectable dragon was going to be seen with me, considering I’d left my mate and all. That wasn’t done, and it had turned me into a social outcast.
“Not exactly,” said Melinda, twisting her hands together again.
“Listen,” said one of the other ladies, “we don’t understand you. How a dragon could leave her mate is beyond any of us.”
“Well, if your mate’s pummeling you within an inch of your life on a weekly basis, it makes it easier to leave,” I said. “But still surprisingly difficult.”
The women all drew back.
“Alastair does have a temper,” muttered Melinda.
“Whatever the case,” said the lady who’d spoken, “we don’t understand it. Every relationship has problems. But your mate is the other part of you, the missing part of your own soul. Without him, you’re only half a person.”
“Well, all half of me is really wondering why you’re here,” I said. I was starting to feel a little twitchy. I had never tried to explain to a dragon before why I’d left Alastair. I had always figured it would be pointless. They wouldn’t get it regardless.
But out here in the regular world, when I said that my husband was abusive, non-dragons were nothing but supportive, so I had forgotten for a moment that dragons would never accept what I’d done.
“You came to visit my Timothy this morning,” said the third lady. She held out her hand. “I’m Nissa Fields.”
I shook with her. “Listen, that was part of an investigation with the police. We’re looking into Fletcher Remington’s disappearance.”
“Oh, we know all about that,” said the rude lady. “I told Viola that it was absolutely gauche to involve the police. As tragic as it is, we all know what happened to her boy, and there’s no reason to make it worse.”
I furrowed my brow at her.
Melinda shot her a sharp look. “Connie, please.”
Connie shrugged. “I said I’d come along, not that I’d keep my opinions to myself.”
“Timmy said you talked to him about The Dungeon,” said Nissa. “We found out about it about a few weeks ago, and we confronted him about it, and…” She pressed her lips together as if she couldn’t continue.
“My Jenna is going there too,” said Melinda.
“Jenna?” I said. “But she’s just a little girl.”
“She came of age two years ago,” said Melinda. “She’s coming along with us to Steven Whitman’s mate party. In some ways, Jenna’s so grown up, but in other ways, she’s very… well, stupid. I’ve forbidden her to go to that horrible place, but I can’t stop her.”
“I hadn’t realized so much time had passed,” I said.
“We’re so old,” said Melinda, smiling.
“Speak for yourself,” said Connie. “I’m easily twice as old as you.”
Melinda laughed. “Well, anyway, we’ve heard things about you, Penny.”
“Things?” I said.
“That you burnt up a vampire a few months ago,” said Nissa. “On the beach. He was the leader of a gang, and he was giving you trouble, so you just—”
“It wasn’t exactly like that,” I said.
“We want your help,” said Melinda.
I looked at the three of them. “My help?”
“We thought maybe you’d be willing to deal with the vampires that are preying on our babies,” said Nissa.
“If anyone could do something, it would be you,” said Melinda.
I chewed on my lip. “You three are dragons, same as me. There’s no reason you couldn’t take care of this problem yourself.”
“Oh, we couldn’t,” said Melinda. “We just… we would have no idea what to do.”
“I haven’t even shifted into dragon form in years,” said Connie.
“I don’t even remember how to breathe fire,” said Nissa.
Was this really the case? I supposed that I had spent so much of my time shifting into dragon form when I was with Alastair because I was healing myself all the time. And I didn’t know too much about the married-dragon-woman culture because Alastair had never really allowed me to have friends.
“Please,” said Melinda. “At least say you’ll think about it.”
“We can pay you, of course,” said Nissa.
“I don’t need money,” I said, offended.
“Of course not,” said Melinda, blushing a little.
I sighed heavily. “I need time to look into this a bit more. I can’t make any promises.”
* * *
“Flint,” Lachlan’s voice said over his phone, his tone clipped and closed-off. He obviously hadn’t checked to see who the incoming call was coming from.
“It’s me,” I said.
“Penny,” he said in acknowledgment. His tone hadn’t much changed.
“You were saying that we needed to talk to people who know Fletcher?”
“Uh huh.”
“Are you busy or something? You want me to call back later?”
“Why would you say that?”
“You sound preoccupied.”
“I’m not.”
“Okay,” I said. “Well, there’s a big party coming up at the Whitman’s home. I heard about it from an old friend this morning, and I did some nosing around, and it’s being held here in Sea City, and any dragon who’s anybody will be there. It’s a find-a-mate party. I mean, that’s not what it’s officially called or anything, but those things are huge.”
“Find-a-mate party?”
“Yeah,” I said. “See, when dragons get to a certain age, and they haven’t met their one true mate, a lot of times they throw a series of parties, inviting dragons from all over the country, all over the world, to come. A dragon has to meet his or her mate to know who it is. And sometimes a dragon’s mate lives very far away, and these parties are the only way they meet.”
“Interesting,” said Lachlan. “So, are
there unmated dragons out there? Dragons who die of old age and have never met their mates?”
“It’s rare,” I said. “But yeah, it happens.”
“Do you think that’s because that person didn’t have a mate or just because they didn’t find one?”
“Oh, God, do not take me down that path. You sound like my stoner friends back when I was a teenager. They’d sit around and talk about stuff like that for hours.”
He chuckled. “You, of course, abstained from substance use.”
“Totally,” I said. “I’ve always been scared of that stuff. We had assemblies at my elementary school about how drugs kill you.”
“Right,” he said. “Well, you think that Fletcher’s circle of friends will be at the party.”
“Every of-age dragon without a mate will be there,” I said. “So, I think we should go. To investigate.”
“Sounds like a private party,” Lachlan said. “Can we just crash it?”
“It’s not as if they check invitations at the door or something,” I said. “There will be too many people there for them to care. Maybe we should attempt to blend in a little, I guess, but I don’t think getting in will be a problem.”
“What do you mean by blend in?”
“Just our clothes, I guess.”
“Let me guess. It’s a fancy party?”
“It’s formal.”
“That mean I have to wear a tuxedo? Because I don’t have one.”
“You can, but you can also just wear a dark suit and a tie,” I said. “Black tie means you have to wear a tuxedo.”
“Well, that doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “Why don’t they just call it dark suit instead of formal, then? And black tie should be called tuxedo.”
“Well, but you also wear tuxedos for white tie events.”
“I’m confused.”
“Look, just wear what you wear to work,” I said. “It will be fine.”
He sighed. “Okay, so there’s not much to this blending in bit, then.”
“I have to get dressed up,” I said.
“Right.”
“Hey,” I said. “About those vampires at The Dungeon. If they all happened to, I don’t know, disappear somehow, would that make it really hard on our case against them?”
“Yes,” he said.
“Hmm,” I said.
“Why are you asking me that?” he said.
“What if they suddenly closed up shop and stopped drinking dragon blood?”
“Are you planning something, because if you are—”
“These are all hypotheticals,” I said.
“Leave it alone,” he said. “We’ll go back and we’ll watch them, and we’ll get this all figured out. If you interfere in any way, you will screw it up.”
“I’m not going to interfere,” I said. “So, this party is this weekend. You don’t have plans, do you?”
“Of course I don’t have plans,” he said. “Promise me that you’ll leave the vampires at The Dungeon alone.”
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” I said.
* * *
Felicity was in the living room of my apartment, pacing back and forth and grumbling. She was in a bad mood. “I can’t believe you wouldn’t let me drive myself over here.”
“I told you to stay out of that parking garage,” I told her. “You have, haven’t you?”
“I never have a second to myself,” she said. “It’s either you or Jensen in my face, following me around, driving me wherever I need to go. I can’t even go buy myself coffee in the morning.”
“You never know if those vampires are going to show up again,” I said.
“You scared them off,” she said. “You practically killed one of them. They’re not coming back. They aren’t going to mess with me.”
“I should have killed them all,” I said.
“And I don’t even know why I’m here right now,” she said.
“I should have blasted them all to pieces, blown them up with fire.”
“I’m not working today, so there’s no reason for you to insist that you drive me over to the hotel, or did you forget that?”
“I know you aren’t working,” I said.
“So, why am I here?”
“To help me look at dresses,” I said. “Come on.” I gestured and started back the hall to my bedroom.
“Dresses?” she said. “For what?”
“I’m going to a party with Lachlan, and we have to get dressed up.”
“Oh,” she said. “I didn’t realize things were picking up between the two of you.”
I made a face. “It’s technically for a case, actually.”
“Oh,” she said.
I opened the door to the bedroom. “Don’t be like that. It’s still going to be fun. It’s just that we won’t have to make awkward small talk. Instead, we can interrogate people.”
“Yeah, that sounds much better.” Felicity raised her eyebrows.
I had laid out three different dresses on the bed.
“Where did you get these?” said Felicity.
“I bought them,” I said.
“You bought three dresses for one event?”
“Well, they all looked good,” I said. “And I’ll probably wear the others at some point.”
“No, you won’t. How many formal events are you expecting to go to?”
I thought about it. “Oh, you’re right. I guess I don’t go to formal events anymore. It’s just that when I usually go shopping for dresses like this, I would buy more than one.”
“Back in Connecticut, you had a backlogged closet of ridiculously expensive dresses that you never wore,” Felicity said.
“Really?” I said. “Because I think I wore them.”
“No, because every time there was another party, you went shopping, and then you came back with five more dresses.”
“Not always,” I said. “Sometimes, the events would sneak up on me, and I wouldn’t have time to shop.”
“No,” she said. “That never happened.”
“Never?” I said.
She shook her head.
“So, you’re saying I should probably take two of these dresses back,” I said.
“Probably,” she said. “And if you’re hurting for places to spend that cash, I could help you find some here in the hotel.”
“Hey, I didn’t spend that much on these dresses,” I said. “I’m a business woman now. I’m good with money.”
“No, I know you are,” she said. She picked up one of the dresses off the bed and checked the tag, which was still on. “Huh,” she said. “This was only fifty bucks?”
“Yeah, there was a sale rack,” I said. “I shopped the sale rack.”
“Oh, Penny, you’ve changed so much,” she said, grinning. She set down the dress and gave me a hug.
“They aren’t designer or anything,” I said. “But no one’s going to be looking at me that close, so I figured these would be fine. I think they were for prom or something, but I picked out stuff with classic lines in dark colors, so I think—”
“You actually did really well,” she said. She picked the dress back up. “And I think I’m trying this one on.”
“What?” I said. “Where are you going to wear it?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe Jensen and I will get invited to a wedding or something.” She held it up and looked in the mirror.
“That one is my favorite,” I said.
She shook her head. “No, no, no. You need to wear the red one.”
“It’s burgundy,” I said, sweeping it up. “And it’s got a slit, so I don’t know if—”
“Try it on,” she said, sweeping out of the room. “I’m trying on this one.”
I tried on the burgundy dress, which did look good on me. It was only that I was afraid it was a little too much. It cut low in the back, baring a lot of skin, and I wasn’t sure I was bold enough to pull it off.
When Felicity came back in wearing th
e other dress, though, I had to admit that it looked amazing on her.
She twirled. “What do you think?”
“It looks great on you,” I said. “You should keep it.”
“I think I could dress it down with sandals and some wooden beads or something,” she said. “I could wear it out to dinner.”
I nodded. “Yeah, it’s simple.”
“But elegant,” she said, looking in the mirror. “I’ll pay you for it.”
“Don’t be stupid,” I said. “Why is everyone offering me money lately?”
“Who else is trying to pay you?”
“Oh, Melinda Irwin,” I said.
“What? When did you see her?”
I told her about Melinda and the other mothers coming by, how they wanted my help with the vampires at The Dungeon. “But if I interfere with that, then it messes up our case, because they might have killed Fletcher. So, I have to leave it alone.”
“Yeah,” said Felicity. “I can see that.”
“But if they really did kill Fletcher, then I can just see what a clusterfuck it would be if the police try to arrest those vampires. They’ll all end up compelled or magically glued to the floor. Those vamps drink dragon blood. They’re powerful.”
“Which is why it might be dangerous for you to go up against them.”
“I could do it,” I said.
“Last time, with Ace, you had help,” said Felicity. “Connor and I had magic from those talismans.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said. “But I don’t want to put you guys in danger again. That didn’t go as planned. I just wanted to scare those vampires.”
“Listen,” said Felicity. “I’ve been thinking. I really don’t like it, you and Jensen micromanaging me the way you are.”
“Oh, God, Felicity, we’re only doing it because we care—”
“Stop,” she said, holding up a hand. “Let me finish. Now, you said that the difference between us was that you could take care of yourself, right? Well, what if I could too?”
“I don’t understand,” I said.
“I want to learn how to use magic,” she said. “You gave me this talisman for protection, but it only does so much on its own. If I knew how to use it, I could do more.”
I nodded slowly. “Yeah, that’s true.”
“Okay, then,” she said. “So, will you teach me?”
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