“Anyway,” Sunny said, interrupting Clint’s thoughts. “I’m glad you’re not a wolf shifter, at least. My dog hates wolf shifters. I don’t know why. It’s some sort of territorial thing, I guess. During the War, I was staying in Falcon Cross for a bit and we lived next door to a wolf shifter refugee. Mocha growled and barked at the guy nonstop. I thought we were going to get kicked out of our apartment.”
Clint raised an eyebrow. “Mocha is your dog’s name?”
Sunny smiled and nodded. “Yup. He’s in the front seat of the moving truck right now. Didn’t want to come out in the rain, I guess.”
“I can’t say I blame him. You picked the worst time of year to move.”
Sunny’s face darkened. “I didn’t have much of a choice,” she said. Then it was her turn to abruptly turn around and avoid talking to Clint.
Clint sighed. He had no idea why what he’d just said had pissed her off, but he didn’t have the energy to care right now. He worked even quicker than before, and the moving van grew emptier and emptier with every passing minute. It took the two of them ten more minutes to unload completely, and they worked the whole time in silence, much to Clint’s relief. When they were done, he offered to start taking her things inside while she drove the truck back, but she waved him off.
“No, no. You’ve done enough. Thank you. I’ll take my time moving all of this when I get back. Really, don’t worry about it. A few drying spells and it’ll all be good as new.”
Normally, Clint would have insisted, but he was too beat to care about manners and politeness anymore. He still had hours of work ahead of him, and he needed to get back to it if he wanted any hope of actually getting some sleep tonight.
“Alright, see you around then,” he said, giving Sunny a small wave as he turned to head back toward his house.
“See you around, dragon,” she said brightly.
Clint stiffened and quickened his pace. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought he’d detected a note of flirtation in her voice. He wasn’t interested in having some ditzy wizard chick drooling all over him because he was a dragon, and he definitely wasn’t interested in having a ditzy wizard chick as a neighbor.
Clint stepped into his house and slammed the door behind him, cursing as a small puddle began to form around his feet where the rain water ran off of him. He could have used a drying spell himself right about now, but there’s no way he was going to ask Sunny for help. Even if he’d wanted to, he could see the lights of the moving truck already starting to dance down the road, away from the house next door. She was in a hurry to get the truck back to save herself the overtime charges.
Clint would just have to dry things off the old fashioned way, with a towel. He’d managed just fine before having a wizard next door, and he would have preferred to keep things that way. Hopefully Sunny would move once her lease was up. She was new here, after all. She’d probably managed to get a good deal on the house since the street was so deserted, but once she realized that there were far better places in Torch Lake for a young, sociable woman to live, she’d move.
At least he hoped she would. He liked having this street to himself. Home was the only place he got any peace these days, and he had a feeling that things with the High Council had barely even started to heat up.
Trouble was brewing. Clint had to stay one step ahead of it if he wanted to keep his job, and his life. Unlike his bubbly new neighbor, Clint did not underestimate the power of dark magic.
Chapter Three
Sunny wished there was a spell that would magically make her legs stop aching. She’d been on her feet for the last seven hours, and she still had an hour to go before her shift at the Bewitched Bean ended. She hadn’t expected to work so long on her first shift, but the afternoon shift worker had called in sick, and the boss had begged her to stay on and help. Sunny had protested that she barely knew how to run the cash register, let alone the espresso machine, but her boss had waved away her concerns.
“You’re doing great. You’re a total natural at this, Sunny. I’m sure you can handle anything our customers can throw at you.”
Sunny wasn’t sure how much of a compliment it was to be told she was a “natural” at making coffee, but she did need money. She agreed to stay and so far had fumbled her way through. The magical brews were easiest. Once she got the hang of the spells, she was whipping up Hocus Pocus Hazelnut Lattes and Mystical Mint Mochas as though she’d been making them for years instead of hours. Sunny had always been good at learning new magic, and coffee spells weren’t that challenging. The nonmagical drinks were harder. When a bear shifter came in and ordered a toasted honey latte, Sunny had stared at the order screen for several confused moments until her coworker had finally let out an exasperated sigh.
“I swear, every new hire we get is dumber than the last. You just handle the cash register and I’ll make the drinks.”
Sunny had been tempted to yell out that she wasn’t dumb. It was her first day on the job for Pete’s sake, and she’d never worked in a coffee shop before. She was doing the best she could, and she thought she was doing pretty well, considering the circumstances. But she bit back her frustrations and moved to take over the cash register without a word of protest. Taking people’s money was a lot easier than making drinks. If Sunny could just swipe credit cards and make correct change for an hour, she would be free to go home and collapse into bed. Well, collapse onto the couch at least. She still hadn’t set up her bedroom furniture, and she had a feeling she wasn’t going to be in the mood to assemble a bed when she got home.
A gorgeous wizard came in and ordered a Hocus Pocus Latte, flirting with Sunny during the whole transaction. Normally, Sunny would have enjoyed the attention, but right now she just wanted to get through the rest of her shift. Thankfully, after the wizard paid for his drink, there was a lull in customers. For the first time in several hours, Sunny felt like she could catch her breath. She straightened out her apron and then straightened out the tip jar. She grabbed a wet rag and began wiping the top of the counter down, all the while avoiding eye contact with her coworker, who was huffing about by the espresso machines, still angry over Sunny’s incompetence, it would seem.
Sunny frowned, and resisted the urge she had to go give the girl a piece of her mind. Sunny had moved to Torch Lake to avoid drawing attention to herself. Starting a big argument on the first day of her new job, even if she did have a good reason to, hardly seemed like the best way to “lay low.”
And so, Sunny focused all her energy on cleaning down the countertops, scrubbing them until they were sparkling, and then scrubbing some more. She fumed as she scrubbed, but she remained silent.
Being treated like an incompetent was a new feeling for Sunny, who had spent most of her life as the most talented wizard in the room. She’d excelled at the Academy of Ancient Magic back in her hometown of Eagle Thicket, and had been slated as the most likely wizard to replace her mentor Barnabas, the Head of the Academy, when he reached retirement age. That had been before the Dark War though. Now, the Academy of Ancient Magic didn’t exist anymore. Neither did her hometown. The whole thing had been burned to the ground, and rumor was that Barnabas had died in the fire, along with everyone else in her clan.
Sunny gritted her teeth and blinked back the tears that threatened to fall. What good would it do her to cry? None of the family or friends she had lost could be brought back, and, besides, she wasn’t the only one who had lost everything. Torch Lake itself existed because of the sheer numbers of wizards and shifters who had been left homeless and clanless by the War. This city is where all the misfits and vagabonds came to settle down. It’s where those without a family came to find a new family. And, despite her coworker’s impatience, Sunny had already seen a great deal in Torch Lake to give her hope. The sheer diversity here astounded her. You could find every type of shifter imaginable. Just today, she’d met wolves, bears, panthers, lions, and even a rare crocodile shifter! And wizards specializing in every form of magic lived here
as well. In some ways, this was Sunny’s dream town. She could observe and learn about types of magic she had only been able to read about in books before the War. This city was a melting pot, a mish-mash of everyone and everything.
Which made it the perfect place for Sunny to hide who she really was.
As best Sunny could tell, anyone who knew anything about her old life had died in the War. Sunny herself would likely be dead now, if it hadn’t been for the last minute decision her old clan’s High Council had made the week before their city went up in flames. With the Great Dark War closing in on them, and the threat of Dark Magic growing stronger, the Eagle Thicket High Council had sent Sunny into hiding.
She remembered it like it was yesterday. She had been in the middle of a routine alchemy practice session at the Academy when a messenger from the High Council burst into the room.
“Sunny Rivera?” he asked.
“That’s me,” she said, looking up in surprise.
“You’re to come with me, immediately, by order of the High Council.
Sunny apologized to the professor she’d been practicing with, and quickly followed the messenger to the High Council building a few blocks away. The High Councilors pulled her into their conference room and closed all the doors, posting guards outside to make sure no one eavesdropped.
“Sunny Rivera,” the Head Councilor said, “We’ve seen your research work at the Academy of Ancient Magic, and we’ve been told by numerous wizards that you have a better grasp of ancient magic than even some of the elders there.”
“Th-thank you, your Honor,” Sunny said, unsure of why he was telling her this.
“Sunny,” he said, folding his arms across his chest. “The High Council has been closely monitoring the war, as you know. With dark magic closing in, we feel it is important to send one of our strongest ancient magic wizards into hiding, somewhere far from here. That way, if we are attacked, and everyone at the Academy is killed, the knowledge of ancient magic will still live on. We can no longer afford to concentrate all of our Ancient Magic Specialists in one spot.”
“Okay,” Sunny said, still not quite understanding.
“Sunny, we’re sending you away, into hiding. Immediately. You’ll be sent somewhere safe to weather the War, and when it’s over, hopefully you’ll have a home to come home to. But if not, you must promise us that you will carry on the ancient magic traditions.”
That had been the last day Sunny saw any of her clanmates. She’d been whisked away to safety, and just in time. The forces of evil had started a massive search for ancient magic wizards, and her hometown had not been able to prepare proper defenses in time. Now, as far as she knew, she, Sunny Rivera, was the last of the ancient magic wizards.
But she sure as hell wasn’t going to tell anyone. Ancient magic was the reason her old clan had been hunted down and destroyed. Anyone who possessed the knowledge that she had was a threat to evil so strong that the forces of evil would stop at nothing to destroy her—and anyone close to her. Sunny didn’t want to live with that kind of fear, and so she buried her true self deep inside of her.
There had been sacrifices, sure. She could have taken a high paying job in any shifter-wizard city, if she’d only shown the High Council what she was capable of. Instead, she had struggled to get by on the meager salary provided by a string of retail and restaurant jobs. But she had managed, and now, she’d scraped up enough to move to Torch Lake, which she’d been told was the place to be for anyone who truly wanted to leave the past behind.
And there was nothing Sunny wanted more than to leave the past behind. She’d been worried before she left Falcon Cross, the last city she’d lived in, that people were starting to suspect that she was hiding something. She’d been happy to get out of there before she was discovered.
“Sunny! Earth to Sunny!”
Sunny stopped scrubbing the counter and looked up, rushing back to the present moment at the sound of her coworker screaming out her name.
“Do you wanna maybe take this guy’s order?”
Sunny blinked in surprise. She had been so absorbed in her thoughts that she hadn’t even heard the bell above the front door jingle. She looked over at the front counter and then did a double take. There, waiting to order his coffee, was her neighbor. He looked different in the light of day, and with his hair and clothes dry instead of soaking wet. There was no mistaking his eyes, though. It was him. And damn, was he one good looking dragon. She’d heard people rave before about how handsome dragon shifters were, but she’d never seen one up close. Now that she had, she could definitely say that the rumors were true. Clint’s sharp green eyes, deep chestnut hair, and chiseled face all made her stomach do a delicious little flip-flop.
“Clint!” she managed to squeak out. “Good to see you again.”
“I didn’t know you worked here,” he said.
He did not sound pleased.
Chapter Four
If Clint had realized before Sunny turned around that it was her, he would have left the Bewitched Bean without ordering his usual Hocus Pocus Latte. He’d had an even worse day at work today than he’d had yesterday. So bad, in fact, that he’d decided to head home from the office an hour early. He’d wanted to clear his head, and he thought stopping off at his favorite coffee shop before heading home to continue working might give him the mental boost he needed to make some progress on the piles of research papers he needed to read through tonight.
The last person he’d expected to see working here was his new neighbor. He hadn’t asked her last night what she did for a living—he hadn’t wanted to engage her in any more small talk than necessary. Perhaps he should have known from her dog’s name that she was the barista type. After all, who would be more likely to name their dog Mocha than someone who made mochas for a living? But even if she was barista material, Clint would never have expected Sunny to be working the day after moving to town. Most people would have taken a few days to settle in, but she had jumped right into it. She must really be hurting for money.
It had been too late to turn around and walk out when he realized that she was there, though. So he’d stiffly ordered his drink and tried to act polite, although he knew the scowl on his face had given away his dark mood. Now, he was home and sitting on his front porch, sipping his latte and trying to calm down.
Why, of all the times for someone to move in, did it have to be this week? This week, when he was getting chewed out on a daily basis by the High Council for not bringing enough dragons to Torch Lake.
Torch Lake itself, the lake for which the town was named, shimmered in the sunlight now. Clint had a view of it from his front porch, but that wasn’t unusual. The lake was so large that most people could see at least a sliver of it from where they lived. Clint could see a few boats zipping around on the lake’s surface right now, and he felt a twinge of jealousy. He wished he was down there, taking advantage of the sunny weather. April was always rainy in Torch Lake, but this April had been the worst since Clint had moved here. His front yard was like a soggy, grassy sponge.
The sound of his cell phone ringing startled Clint out of his thoughts. He pulled it out of his pocket and stared at the caller I.D. screen, already feeling defensive. If someone from work was calling to give him more bad news, he was going to chuck this phone right into the middle of his soggy lawn.
But he relaxed when he saw the name Leif displayed across the screen. Leif was one of his best friends, and his former boss. Leif also worked at the Dragon Utilization Department, but his job was to prepare training programs for all the dragons that would be relocating to Torch Lake. All the dragons that Clint had been put in charge of helping the Dragon Recovery Bureau find and convince to move. So far, Leif’s programs sat empty, but, unlike the High Council, Leif didn’t blame Clint for it. In fact, Leif was doing everything he could to help Clint.
“Hey, Leif.”
“Clint! I’m glad I caught you. I wasn’t sure whether you’d be driving home already or not.”
“Again? Jeez, they’re really letting you have it.”
“Yeah. At this point it seems like the angry rants from them are going to be a daily occurrence. They’re frustrated and under a lot of pressure from the public of Torch Lake. They need a scapegoat to blame and they’ve decide I’m it, I guess.”
There was a long pause, and then a loud sigh from Leif. “I’m sorry, man. I don’t know why they’re blaming you for all this. It seems really unlike them to be so unreasonable about things.”
“Yeah, well. I guess no High Council is perfect.” Clint felt uncomfortable criticizing the High Council, even if they were in the wrong. He’d been brought up to always be respectful of clan leadership, and criticizing them to another government employee felt wrong. Luckily, Leif didn’t dwell on the subject.
“Anyway, I’m calling because I talked to Sofia like you asked me to.”
Clint perked up. Sofia was Leif’s lifemate, and a very talented wizard. She worked in the Dragon Recovery Bureau, too, but whatever project she was working on right now was top secret. She spent most of her time at work hidden away in a closed office. Clint had asked Leif to talk to her and see if she had any thoughts about what kind of magic the Dark Warriors might be using to thwart the dragon recruiting efforts. Clint’s heart started pounding with excitement, even though he had no idea yet whether she’d had any useful information. He was grasping at straws right now, and any help, however small, would be much appreciated.
“What’d she say?” Clint asked, somehow managing to keep his voice relatively calm.
“She said what you’re describing doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”
Clint frowned. “Oh, great. Another doubter.” He tried to keep his voice light and make the words sound like a joke, but that was hard to do. He was too worried about the whole situation to really make a joke out of it.
Dragon Protecting (Torch Lake Shifters Book 4) Page 2