Fire Song (City of Dragons)

by St. Crowe, Val

  “Besides,” said Lachlan. “It wouldn’t matter, because the fact that he beat her wouldn’t prove that he killed her.”

  “No, but it would suggest that he was capable, don’t you think?”

  “That’s why we’re looking into him,” said Lachlan. “No, we need something tangible. We need to find the kill site. We need the murder weapon. So, where would he be doing this? In that house we’ve visited?”

  “Seems too conspicuous,” I said. “There are so many houses nearby. And apparently his sister’s living there with him. How would he hide the girls there?”

  “We should look into other properties, then,” said Lachlan. “Does he have another house in the area?”

  “No, he hates it here. He hates the beach. I don’t even know why he came here.”

  “Well, that’s something to look into,” said Lachlan. “Actually, it might help us eliminate other suspects. If we can discover that any one of them doesn’t have a place to use to keep the girls captive and kill them, then we’d cross that suspect off. And if I go to my captain with only a few suspects instead of four, that might be progress enough for him to have faith in my capabilities to solve this case.”

  “Makes sense,” I said.

  He sighed. “As much as I hate to say it, that might be the best we can do for now. I’d love to find some way to nail Alastair to the wall. But maybe we just eliminate everyone else first. Maybe in that time away, we’ll think of something we haven’t. Some way to prove he’s guilty.”

  I took a drink of my cranberry and vodka. “We will. We’ll think of something.”

  Lachlan drained the rest of his beer.

  We were quiet.

  “Uh, thanks for the drink,” he said.

  “I had the gift card,” I said. “So, it’s not a a big deal.”

  “Well, you used it on me,” he said. “I appreciate it. I haven’t… I’ve been focusing on work since I moved here. I haven’t really made much time to do anything, uh, social.”

  “Yeah, well, I guess this is kind of work related, anyway,” I said.

  “Right,” he said. He fiddled with this empty bottle. “Anyway, I’m finished, so I guess I’ll head out.”

  “No, stay! You should get another beer,” I said. “My treat, of course.”

  “I can afford to buy myself another beer,” he said.

  “No, of course you can,” I said. “It’s only that if I’m insisting you stay, then I feel like I should pay.”

  “You’re insisting, hmm?” He grinned at me.

  I looked into my drink, feeling myself blush for some reason. What was that about? This wasn’t anything like the way I felt for Alastair. It wasn’t all-encompassing and intense. So, that meant that it couldn’t be… What was even the word? Romantic? It definitely wasn’t that.

  He signaled the bartender and ordered another drink.

  I finished mine and got one too.

  “So,” he said, “if we were to talk about something that wasn’t work related, something social, what would it be?”

  “Um…” I had no idea. Why had he asked me that? “Well, I guess we would talk about our interests or something.”

  “Like hobbies? You have hobbies? Macrame, maybe? Personally, I build model trains.”

  “Really?” I said, taken aback.

  “No, not really,” he said.

  “Oh,” I said. “You were making a joke.”

  “Trying to,” he said. “Failing, by the sounds of it.”

  I smiled.

  “Little rusty at that.” He took a drink of his beer.

  “I don’t really have hobbies,” I said. “Even when I was a dragon—”

  “You’re still a dragon.”

  I blushed again. “I know that. I guess I just… sometimes I don’t feel like I am. It’s like I’m a different person than I used to be.”

  “I know that feeling,” he said. “Have you ever read Kafka’s The Metamorphosis?”

  “No,” I said. “But that’s that book about the guy who turns into a cockroach, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “His life is horrible, and then he descends into—”

  “Just because I don’t feel like a dragon doesn’t mean I turned into a cockroach.”

  “I wasn’t saying that. I wasn’t talking about you.”

  “You think you’re a cockroach?”

  “Maybe more like a mosquito,” he said. “Mosquitoes drink blood.”

  “Oh, right,” I said. “You do drink blood, then? I never see you do it. But I guess you must, or else you’d just…” Die. But I found I didn’t want to say that aloud.

  He looked up at the ceiling. “Sometimes I wonder why I don’t stop drinking it. Just fade away.”

  “Lachlan—”

  “Partly it’s because it wouldn’t be fading away,” he said. “It’s not like that. If I don’t drink the blood, the gunshot wound that killed me reopens. It’s painful.”

  “I don’t think you should be thinking about killing yourself.”

  “No?” He took another drink and smiled at me with mock brightness. “I have so much to live for, after all.”

  “That’s not…” I drew in breath. “That’s not the reason we keep on going. Because of having things to live for.”

  “You don’t think so?” he said.

  “No. Even if things feel terrible, even if you think you have no one who cares about you—”

  “That’s not what makes me feel I have nothing to live for,” he said. “It’s having no one to care about. No one to care for. There’s a difference. When there are people depending on you, no matter how rough things are, you keep going for those people. That’s probably why you collect strays.”

  “I wish you wouldn’t call them that.” I pressed my lips together in a firm line.

  He laughed a little. “I don’t know what it is you think of me. Maybe you think that because you know all my secrets, you’ve uncovered some ooey gooey layer deep inside, and that now I’m sweet and cuddly like a stuffed animal with fangs. But you’re wrong. I don’t know why I get up in the morning, why I keep going, but it’s something to do with solving murders. I’m good at it, and it takes up a lot of my time, and that way I don’t have to think…” He stood up. “Never mind.” He picked up his beer and gulped it down. “I don’t think I’m the kind of person who can be social, Penny. Sorry.” He dug out a few crumpled dollar bills and set them on the bar.

  “Wait,” I said. “I shouldn’t have brought up—”

  “It’s not your fault,” he said. “It’s mine. You…” He shook his head again. His voice lowered so that it was soft and lilting. “I admire you. You’ve been through hell—”

  “Nothing like what you went through.”

  “What?” He laughed brusquely. “Worse than what I went through. But there’s still a… a light in you. A fire in you.” He leaned close. “It’s in your blood. And when your blood was in me…”

  A slow, sweet ache started to travel over my core. I remembered the way it had felt when he had his mouth on my wrist. My mouth felt dry.

  He blinked, shaking himself. “I’m leaving,” he said, and his voice was ragged. “I think it’s better if I stay away from you if we’re not working.” He started for the door.

  I got up and I stopped him, taking him by the arm. “Lachlan, wait.”

  He gazed into my eyes.

  I gazed back, searching in them for that hollow look I’d seen before. But it had been replaced with something else. Hunger. It frightened me. It sent thrills through me.

  He tore his gaze away from mine. Without another word, he hurled himself away from me, pushing people aside in his haste.

  I was trembling. I turned back to the bar and picked up my drink. I tried to take a drink, but my hands were shaking too hard. It spilled.

  I set it down and placed my hands palms down on the bar.

  What the hell?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Jensen was laughing. “Geez, Pen
ny, stop apologizing. I told you that it’s okay. Really. I’ve gotten used to it at this point. Being a vampire isn’t always easy.”

  “I know that,” I said, taking another drink from my glass of wine, “which is why I’m sorry that my behavior did nothing to alleviate that difficulty.”

  “You were just looking out for me,” said Felicity. “You’ve always been a mama bear in that way.”

  The three of us were out to dinner at The Green Fin, a restaurant that specialized in Thai and Vietnamese food along Atlantic Avenue. I’d never been here before, but it had seemed appropriate. And we couldn’t very well go back to Lombardo’s after the scene I’d caused there.

  Felicity had ordered two thick steaks and had them cooked rare. Her plate was full of Thai seasonings and red meat juice now, since she’d eaten them both. “I appreciate the sentiment, but not the mode of operation.”

  “I really am sorry,” I said.

  She laughed. “That wasn’t meant as a cue for you to apologize again.”

  “Well, I am sorry, though,” I said. I turned to Jensen. “I was out of line. I can’t use Felicity as an excuse.”

  “I’m glad she has someone like you, though,” he said. “She needs someone to be in her corner.”

  I shrugged. “Well, we’re best friends. That’s what we do for each other. She’d go to bat for me too.”

  Felicity smiled at me. “I’m so glad that you’re not angry with Jensen anymore.”

  “Me too,” I said.

  “Because now we can tell you our big news, and you won’t get all freaked out.”

  “Big news?” I raised my eyebrows.

  Felicity beamed at Jensen. “We’re going to move in together.”

  I set down my wine glass. “Oh.”

  Jensen grinned at her, his expression full of adoration. “She’s already at my place practically every night, anyway, and I have the extra room, so I figured why not?”

  “So, you’re moving into his apartment, then?” I said. Felicity would be gone. No more breakfasts together at the Pink Flamingo. No more long talks in the middle of the night. “You’re not going to get a separate place?”

  “Oh, we’ll probably move somewhere else after his lease is up,” she said. “But it doesn’t make sense to break it, not when I don’t really have anything to move in anyway. I’ve got clothes, of course, but I haven’t really acquired any furniture or anything like that. I mean, my whole adult life, I’ve lived with you.”

  “I thought you liked that,” I said in a small voice.

  “I did. I do.” She was still grinning. “But I can’t depend on your hospitality forever.”

  “It’s not hospitality,” I said. “You work at the hotel. Giving you a place to live is part of your wages.”

  She furrowed her brow. “Are you okay?”

  I took a drink of wine. “I never meant to get in the way of your acquiring furniture.”

  “You didn’t.” She laughed. “Are you upset about this? You spent all night apologizing to Jensen, so you can’t still think that he—”

  “I’m not upset.” I took another drink of wine. A bigger drink. I forced myself to laugh. “It’s, um, a surprise is all.”

  “Yeah, it is, but a good one,” said Felicity. She grabbed my hand. “You’re happy for me, right?”

  I nodded. “Of course. This is… this is great for you.” I looked at Jensen. “For both of you.” I took another drink of wine. And then another. And then I just gulped down the rest of the glass. I pushed my chair back. “Um, I’m going to head to the restroom, okay?”

  Once alone in the bathroom, I locked the door behind me and stood at the sink, staring at myself in the mirror.

  I tried to imagine a life in which Felicity and I didn’t live together. Ever since she’d become a drake, she’d lived with me. When I was married to Alastair, she’d come along, and I’d told him that she was the best housekeeper I’d ever had and that I couldn’t live without her.

  And yes, she’d cleaned my house back then, but I’d never thought of her as a servant. She’d been the only thing that kept me sane. Without her, I didn’t think I’d ever have had the strength to leave Alastair.

  But had it been fair to her? I’d always thought that I had been doing her a favor, because she was a drake, and she needed somewhere to work and to live, and I had thought that I was helping her out.

  I glared at my reflection. “She’s not a stray,” I muttered at myself.

  It wasn’t true. I didn’t take care of her just to feel as if I mattered to the universe, just to have a reason to live. I thought of her as an equal. As my best friend. But the more I thought about it, the more it did seem as if she was kept by me. Like a pet.

  I shut my eyes.

  Damn Lachlan for saying that to me. Damn him.

  I didn’t want Felicity to leave. That was selfish of me. I would miss her, and I was used to having her around.

  But I could let her go out on her own.

  I could overcome my selfishness.

  And I didn’t… I didn’t need her to need me. Because that was incredibly screwed up, and I wasn’t going to believe that kind of thing about myself.

  I sucked in a breath and glared at the mirror. “That’s the real difference between you and me, Lachlan. You believe the worst about yourself. But I refuse to think that I’m doing anything other than the best I can.”

  *

  I stood over Lachlan’s desk.

  He was intent on his computer screen, reading something on it with a knitted brow. He was so interested in it that he hadn’t even noticed my approach.

  I set a coffee cup down next to him.

  He started.

  “Good morning,” I said.

  “Penny. You scared the crap out of me.”

  I laughed, sitting down next to him. “What’s going on? You didn’t get in touch with me yesterday.”

  “Was I supposed to?”

  “Well, I thought I was still helping you out with the case.”

  “You are.”

  “So, yesterday, you weren’t working on it?” I said. “I thought that it was your number one priority. I thought the captain was breathing down your neck.”

  He picked up the coffee up and took the lid off of it. He blew on the steaming black liquid. “No, it was only that I was doing boring stuff yesterday. Paperwork. Research. I just didn’t want to bother you.”

  “Oh,” I said. “Because I was a little worried. When you left me at the bar the other night—”

  “Let’s not talk about that.” He took a drink of his coffee and then winced. Apparently, it was too hot. “It’s been a while since I’ve had a beer. Must not have much tolerance anymore, I guess. Forget everything I said.”

  “You didn’t really say anything,” I said.

  “Good,” he said. He turned back to his screen. “Truth is, today’s probably going to be more boring stuff. Just more research. I appreciate the coffee and all, but I don’t need you today.”

  I folded my arms over my chest. “I can help with research.”

  He shook his head, still not looking at me. “That’s not what I need you for. You’re here because you know about magical creatures. I’m just looking into real estate records.”

  “I can use a computer, you know,” I said. “Let me help. It’ll go quicker.”

  He sighed.

  “You’re trying to get rid of me,” I said.

  “No,” he said. “I swear I’m not.” But he was still staring at the screen.

  “Look at me and say that,” I said.

  He sighed again. Then he got up. “Sit.” He pointed to his chair.

  “I don’t need to take your computer.”

  “Well, I’m already signed in here,” he said. “So, you use this one, and I’ll go over there.” He pointed two desks over. “I’ll sign in over there. I’m the one with the login. Makes more sense for me to move.”

  “Oh,” I said.

  He pointed to the screen, at
the blinking cursor. “You look for any property owned by Killian Henderson,” he said. “I’ll look into Anthony Barnes. We’ll check in with each other in a half an hour?”

  “Okay,” I said. “Sounds good.”

  *

  “What’d you find out?” Lachlan asked me. He was still working on his coffee, but he’d put the lid back on.

  “Well,” I said. “Killian owns the strip club, of course. And he also owns a big house out on Ocean Pines. I found an old real estate listing for it on the Internet, and it had pictures of the inside. I can show you if you want.”

  “In a minute,” he said. “What’s it like?”

  “Huge,” I said. “It’s three stories. I don’t know if it’s likely that he could keep girls there and kill them without his wife knowing about it, but I think it could be possible.”

  “Okay,” said Lachlan. “What you’re saying is that we can’t rule him out.”

  “Not yet,” I said. “But he doesn’t seem to have a special kill house or something.”

  “Well, we should go and talk to the wife at some point,” said Lachlan. “Maybe then we get some idea of how much attention she pays to his comings and goings.”

  “Okay,” I said. “What did you find out about Anthony Barnes?”

  Lachlan shook his head. “Well, believe it or not, Barnes inherited an old house way down near Assateague. The place is pretty isolated. It could be perfect.”

  “Wow,” I said.

  “Yeah,” he said. “But it’s been in the family for a while, and it’s in disrepair. It took a beating in the last hurricane that came through, and it’s never been fixed up since. I don’t know if it’s the kind of place where he could really keep someone.”

  “But we can’t rule him out either, then,” I said.

  “Right,” he said.

  “And Alastair?” I said. “What about him? Does he have any property?”

  “Well, that’s what I was looking into yesterday,” said Lachlan. “I found out that he doesn’t own the house where he’s staying. His sister does. But he does own property down here. He’s got a big mansion inland, near Delaware. It’s not close to the beach, but it’s very, very remote. I put in for a warrant to search it, but I don’t know if the captain will give it to me or not. I haven’t got much evidence, and I know that the department doesn’t like to mess with the dragons. No one likes to make enemies of dragons if it isn’t necessary.”