Dragons in law enforcement tended to take a dim view of dragon rogues like Gabriel; the fear was that rogues would tarnish the law-abiding dragons by association, and human-dragon relations were dicey enough. The problem was, although humans vastly outnumbered dragons, they were still terrified of them.
“Hey!” Kelly yelled, leaping between the two dragon shifters before Gabriel could stop her. Gabriel might be a thief, but the last thing that Kelly wanted was for him to go to prison – or duel to the death – on her account. “Do you have a warrant for my arrest?” she demanded of Teague. “You can’t take me in without a warrant.”
“Well, I…” Vigiles Principe Teague glanced around nervously; a good sized crowd had assembled now, both humans and dragons. They were muttering amongst themselves and watching the dramatic scene unfold.
“I thought so,” Kelly said with a nod. “So I don’t have to accompany you anywhere. As for Pandora, I didn’t have to drug her; she and her boyfriend were already three sheets to the wind.” Kelly wasn’t even entirely lying; she didn’t have to drug Pandora. She’d just done it to be extra sure. And the drug she’d used was undetectable, so they wouldn’t be able to prove anything.
“Ha! That proves you were in my trailer!” Pandora said eagerly. “You couldn’t know I’d been drinking with Mike unless you were in my trailer!”
“Wait, who’s Mike?” Pandora’s father looked at her in alarm, then turned back to Principe Teague. “She doesn’t have a boyfriend! She was selected by the fair committee! She was preparing to marry Gabriel!”
Pandora’s look of triumph faded and turned sly and sullen. “Just because I had a drink or two before the ceremony doesn’t mean anything. I was nervous, that’s all. The drink was to help me relax.”
“A drink or two?” Kelly scoffed. “How about a pitcher or two? There were two empty pitchers on your dressing table, and you and your boyfriend were passed out in your underwear!”
“No we weren’t!” Pandora’s face turned red.
“Then how do I know about your boyfriend’s tattoos? He’s got a tattoo on his thigh that says ‘eat my meat’ with an arrow pointing at his crotch.”
“Gross,” one of the women in the crowd said to her husband. “If you got that kind of a tattoo, I’d divorce you.”
Gabriel threw back his head and laughed.
“So that’s what you did on the very day you were to be engaged to me? Way to keep it classy, Pandora.”
“He’s not my boyfriend! If you know what tattoo is on his thigh, well then…then you must have been having sex with him!” Pandora said furiously to Kelly.
People around them were snickering behind their hands, and Pandora’s father looked as if he were about to explode.
“Are you serious?” Kelly scoffed. “I flew in from Seattle on the morning of the fair, checked into my hotel, and went straight to the fairgrounds. And I’ve never even been in the Tri-Valley area before. All of that’s easy to prove. So what’s more likely – that you were banging a local guy, or that I was?”
“She still broke into the trailer,” Pandora’s father said desperately to Principe Teague. “Breaking and entering is illegal. Arrest her.”
“All I did was bring her and her boyfriend more beer,” Kelly said. “They let me in.” Also true. Mostly. They had let her in.
“I need to talk to the people who own the trailer. That’s the fair committee,” Teague said unhappily, shaking his head. “I have to find out if they want to press charges. And do you want any more publicity about this than you’ve already gotten?” He glanced around at the crowd.
“Fine, take her side,” Pandora’s father muttered angrily.
Tears of rage and humiliation glistened in Pandora’s eyes. “I will get you for this,” she swore. “I will destroy you both.” And she and her family stormed off.
Principe Teague looked at Gabriel. “I suppose you think you’ve gotten away with something,” he said angrily. “Your luck won’t hold forever.”
And he walked away.
Chapter Ten
La Dolce Vita was a popular Italian restaurant in South Lyndvale. Gabriel and Kelly sat at a table at the back, but the eatery was packed, and a steady stream of people stopped by their table, offering their congratulations and asking when the wedding would be held. Apparently Gabriel and his family were well liked in the valley, even though they were criminals. Kelly wasn’t really surprised; they were the most charming bunch of thieves she’d ever met.
“Did you deliver all your drugs?” Kelly asked Gabriel, digging into her fettucine Alfredo.
“Yes, thanks, heroin sales are up but crack seems to be on the decline.” Gabriel ate an entire steak in half a dozen bites. Dragons were known for their huge appetites; they needed a lot of fuel for their flames.
“Are you going to tell me what was really in the bag?”
He ignored her and kept eating.
“So,” he said when he finally slowed down, “What did you mean about Marvin?”
“Well. He was in my class at the Gemological Institute for Empaths.”
“And?”
Kelly hesitated. She didn’t like bad-mouthing people, but the problem was, an incompetent gem empath could cause a lot of harm.
“It’s just…his powers are very, very weak. Barely enough to register. He was okay with the really powerful gems, but he couldn’t even detect the less powerful gems. And some of those gems could do a lot of harm in the wrong hands. He shouldn’t have gotten his certificate as a gem empath, but he was having an affair with one of his male, married professors, and that was the professor who tested our abilities.”
“So how did your abilities rank?”
Off the charts. Too high to measure. “Pretty good,” she said modestly.
“You’re a lousy liar.”
She smiled sweetly. “Actually, I’m a pretty good liar. That’s why I manage to finagle my way into so many places that I shouldn’t be, and close so many cases.”
He smiled at her. “Then maybe it’s our deep psychic connection that allows me to tell when you’re trying to pull the wool over my eyes.”
She made a scoffing noise. “Or the voices in your head.”
“Anyway, back to Marvin,” Gabriel said. “He came with a glowing recommendation from his professor…I imagine that would be the guy he had the affair with.” He frowned. “So you’re saying that his skills are weak.”
“Yes. I wanted to see if he’d missed anything, so I looked closely at some of your pieces, and I already found a couple that need a closer look.” She named the gems that she’d handled, including the ones that healed and the ones that increased aggression.
“I’ll have those pulled from the floor immediately,” Gabriel said. “And I’ll see about finding a way to double-check our inventory.”
Like bringing in another empath? That would be the only way. “Just don’t tell me about it,” Kelly said. “I’m here to find one particular big red rock. Other than that, I don’t want to know about any other highly questionable activities you’re taking part in.”
Later that afternoon, back at the castle, Kelly went to her room to check her emails and update the agency on her progress – or lack thereof. Gabriel was off somewhere else, doing God knew what – he claimed he was in his office doing paperwork, but for all Kelly knew, he could be off boosting the Hope Diamond. That seemed more likely than the paperwork scenario.
The door to Kelly’s room swung open, and Evangeline strode in. She still had that sullen “woe is me” look stamped on her face. Kelly barely resisted the urge to say, “Careful, your face will freeze that way.” Instead, she shut her laptop, swiveled away from her desk, and said, “Hey, Evangeline, what’s up?”
“Why do you want to arrest my uncle? Is it because you think he stole the Dragonsblood?” Evangeline demanded.
“He told you that?” Kelly said, startled.
“Of course not,” Evangeline said, her tone bitter. “Nobody tells me anything around h
ere. All they do is lie to me.”
“About what?”
Evangeline shrugged. “How would I even know, since they’re lying?”
“Yeah, I know how you feel.”
“‘I know you feel’”, Evangeline mimicked. “Everybody always says that.”
Now Kelly was starting to get annoyed. “Listen up,” she snapped. “I didn’t ask you to come in here with your pissy attitude. Yes, I said pissy,” she continued when Evangeline’s eyes widened in surprise. “My father was the president of an investment firm, and he was also a thief who stole millions from the firm, and when the police started investigating it, everybody lied to me about it for months. All these whispers and tiptoeing around, and my father had disappeared, and I had to find out by seeing it on the evening news when a warrant was issued for his arrest. My friends stopped being my friends and started putting bags of dog crap in my locker at school. So yes, I do know how you feel. But I didn’t go around taking out my problems on everybody else. Get over yourself.”
Evangeline’s eyes opened even wider, and Kelly shook her head, leaning back in her chair.
“Sorry,” she sighed. She shouldn’t be yelling at a teenager. Or swearing at her, although she was sure Evangeline heard far worse on whatever TV shows she watched and websites she visited.
“No, you’re right,” Evangeline said quietly. “I shouldn’t be mean to you. None of this is your fault. It’s Uncle Calder’s fault.”
“Calder?” Kelly said in surprise. “What did he do?”
“I’m not allowed to tell you.” She glanced at Kelly. “The Dragonsblood Ruby has powers. What does it do?”
“I wouldn’t be able to tell you that unless I handled it.”
“But it does have powers.” Evangeline was watching her carefully.
“It is rumored to be an extremely powerful jewel, but it’s never been examined by a professional empath,” she said. “The family who owns it purchased it for its beauty, not its abilities. I wouldn’t know if the rumors are true without touching it.”
The fact that Evangeline was asking her about it made Kelly think that it was somewhere on the premises.
“How can you tell when a jewel has powers? Just in general?” Evangeline asked. “Can you feel it, like it’s something that’s alive?”
As she spoke, she stroked her bracelet, which had round lozenges of rose quartz set in gold. It was a gem that was called the “mothering stone”; mothers imbued it with their love and gave it to their children so they would always feel that love.
Kelly tried to remember if she’d ever seen Evangeline’s mother. Was she dead? That might explain a lot of Evangeline’s attitude.
“Dragons aren’t able to be gem empaths, I’m afraid,” Kelly said. At least, she’d never heard of such a thing, and she was an expert in the field; she was pretty sure she’d know.
“But what does it feel like?” Evangeline persisted.
“Different gems have different powers and properties – just like different metals have different types of conductivity. Gems have their own energy. In their own way, they’re a kind of living being. I can communicate with some of them. Some of them, I can even tell them what to do.”
“How?”
Well, that particular knowledge wasn’t a secret; Evangeline could find that out herself online. “I hold the jewel close to me and I let my energy mingle with it. Once I understand the gem’s powers, I concentrate really hard and I visualize what I want the jewel to do.”
Evangeline shrugged, looking out the window into the distance. “Interesting,” she said finally, and then shrugged again and glanced back at Kelly. “Thanks,” she said flatly, and left the room. Kelly was left with an uneasy feeling about the conversation, and she debated telling Gabriel about it, but finally decided not to for the time being.
The door opened again, and this time it was Tabitha.
“We’re going shopping,” she announced. “I have an appointment for you to be fitted at Birdie’s Bridal Creations.”
Kelly stood up. What the heck – she’d play along with the insanity. And maybe she could get Tabitha to slip up and reveal where the ruby was.
“Who’s we?” she said. “Should I go get my sister?”
“That wet blanket?” Tabitha snorted. “Certainly not. Anyway, she’s busy trying to search the castle without us noticing, and making Winthrop’s hair go gray. That’s fine with me. Keeps her from ruining our fun.”
Kelly shrugged and followed Tabitha downstairs. Gabriel met them at the front door, looking thoroughly rattled. His hair was mussed and he was out of breath, as if he’d just run at top speed to intercept them.
“So, we’re going shopping?” he said, moving to block their exit.
“You’re not invited,” Tabitha informed him loftily.
“Mother.” He gave her a severe look, brows drawn together. “Of course I’m coming.”
“Oh no,” Kelly said, with a malicious smile. She was enjoying seeing the normally unflappable Gabriel looking thoroughly rattled for once. “I simply must take this opportunity to get to know my new mother-in-law better.”
Gabriel fixed his mother with a ferocious glare. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Tell you what,” Kelly said to Gabriel. “Tell me where the Dragonsblood is, and you can come with us.”
“Pretty sure he hid it in his underwear drawer. Didn’t you, darling?” His mother winked at him, and he stifled a laugh, which was quickly replaced with a scowl.
“You’re a natural comedienne, mother.” Gabriel threw his arm around her shoulders and marched her off, none too gently. He leaned in and whispered something in her ear, and his mother just shook her head and looked sweet and innocent.
Riiiight.
Then his mother shook her head, pulled away, and walked back over to Kelly.
“Ready?” she said brightly.
“See you later, dear. Don’t wait up!” Tabitha called out.
Chapter Eleven
Gabriel paced around the lawn behind the castle and tried not to think about what his mother might be telling Kelly as they shopped.
He knew his mother’s mischievous streak – hell, he’d inherited it from her – but he also knew that she’d taken an instant liking to Kelly.
So, as he’d pointed out to his mother before she left, it would be a really bad idea if she recounted any anecdotes about him when he was a cute little dragonling – like, say, when he’d flown over the car of the human teacher who’d given him a failing grade in second grade math and maybe, possibly, pooped on the car. From a hundred feet in the air.
That kind of thing, he’d reminded his mother, would not be likely to endear him to Kelly.
His mother had just smiled wickedly and promised that she would say nothing but good things about him to his future bride. Then she’d winked at him. The bitch. He was ninety-nine percent sure that his mother was just making him nervous for the fun of it and she wouldn’t really do anything, but that other one percent…
“Not sure which one of them looks more miserable.” His father’s voice made him jump. He’d been so distracted that he hadn’t even noticed his approach.
“What?” he asked, startled. “Who looks miserable?”
His father inclined his head.
Teresa was stalking along a garden pathway, talking angrily into her cell phone. Winthrop was following about ten feet behind her with a determined look on his face. When she slowed, he slowed. When she sped up, he sped up.
“That was a stroke of genius, assigning him to be the one to watch her,” Emerson observed. “Or truly inspired evil. Which was it?”
“Perhaps a little of both,” Gabriel said sourly. “He could quit, after all.”
“But he won’t.” Winthrop was bound by tradition. More than a century ago, in England, one of Gabriel’s ancestors had saved the life of Winthrop’s great-great grandfather. Ever since then, the oldest male Higginbotham – Winthrop’s last name – out of a sense o
f duty, had insisted on serving as a valet for Gabriel’s family until such time as they married. They were all like Winthrop – prim, proper, disapproving, a terrible fit for a family like the Kingsleys. And it seemed to be impossible to get rid of them.
Emerson glanced at his son. “Kelly seems like a decent sort. Do you think she’d help us, if…?”
Gabriel shook his head. “No. She’s got a very strong moral sense. If she knew, I’m not sure what she’d do, and it’s too great a risk.” His gaze involuntarily flicked towards the rear tower, and then he looked at his father, whose expression had gone wistful.
“It’s not your fault,” Gabriel said to his father for the thousandth time. “You couldn’t have known.”
His father managed a pained smile, but he avoided Gabriel’s gaze. Emerson tried to maintain a cheerful demeanor, but every year that went by without a solution to their dilemma, he grew glummer and glummer.
His cell phone buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out.
It was Kelly.
“Gabriel, are you busy?” Her voice sounded hollow and echoey.
“Where are you?” he demanded. Had Principe Teague gone after her again? He’d had it with that officious son of a bitch. He’d sky-challenge him and fry him to a crisp if he so much as looked at Kelly the wrong way.
“I’m in the bathroom stall at the wedding dress shop.”
He felt a stab of annoyance. “Oh God, what did my mother do?”
“She pocketed several hair bows. I don’t even know why – they wouldn’t be worth that much,” Kelly said. “And when we were at the coffee shop, she slipped a coffee mug into her purse. I know you’ll find that hard to believe, but—”
“Kelly, I know,” he said. “That’s just something my mother does. I’m surprised you spotted it, actually. She’s pretty smooth.” Lots of practice.
Kelly actually gave a rueful chuckle. “Not like I’m an insurance investigator, so I’m always on the lookout for suspicious activity. And not like I’m watching your entire family’s every move with deep suspicion or anything.”
“Right,” he said with a sigh. “The bag of packages that I had the other day… When my mother comes home from shopping, I go through her bags, take everything that still has price tags on it, and I return it. If I miss anything, the shopkeepers call me and let me know. Everyone in town knows about it. It’s just, you know…her thing.”
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