by Rachel Aaron
Svena met her sister’s icy glare cold for cold as she reached over and stabbed her finger against the limo’s command console. The car pulled over at once, sliding through the skyway’s night traffic into a quiet corporate park. The second they stopped moving, Svena threw open the door. “Get out.”
Her older sister exited the car without another word, the sharp heels of her delicate white stilettos clicking against the pristine sidewalk. It wasn’t until her sister was completely outside that Svena realized she didn’t actually know where they were, but any regrets she might have had about kicking her sister to the curb in a strange city vanished when she spotted a second limo waiting just around the corner, its door already open.
Svena fought the urge to sigh. Of course. Estella was a seer—of course she would know exactly when and where she was going to be tossed out and make preparations accordingly. The only real surprise was that Svena hadn’t seen it coming. Nothing in this world ever turned out anyway except exactly as a seer wanted.
Like she could read her mind, Estella chose that moment to turn, her lips curling into a cold smile as she slipped her purse over her shoulder. “Remember that, Svena,” she said, her voice haughty. “No matter how it may seem, no matter what you do, I always come out on top in the end. But while your arrogance suggests otherwise, hope is not yet lost. You have not vanished completely from my sight, which means the future can still be changed. All you have to do is be sure that, when the time comes, you make the right choice. Will you promise me that, little sister?”
Svena’s answer was to slam the door. Her limo pulled out a second later, peeling away from the little park so fast, Svena never had a chance to see the beautiful man with the absurdly long jet black hair and bright green eyes watching the drama play out from a park bench just a few feet away.
Estella was not so unobservant. Long after her sister’s car had vanished, she stood on the curb, watching the man with the sort of intense, focused hatred mortals simply did not live long enough to achieve. The man, in turn, smiled wide and patted the empty spot on the bench beside him.
With a glare that could have frozen the whole of Lake St. Clare, Estella turned on her heel and marched to her limo, slamming the door behind her. A second later, her car shot down the street after her sister’s, passing the man on the bench so fast, the rush of wind sent his long hair whipping into his face. He brushed it back again with a grin and put out his hand to provide a landing spot for the pigeon who’d just flown up through the tiny gap in the skyway below.
“Well,” he said as the bird settled on his fingers. “Isn’t that interesting?”
The pigeon tilted its head inquisitively, but the green eyed man simply kissed its soft feathers and set the bird down on the bench beside him, freeing his hand to pull a phone out of his pocket. It was an old keyboard model from before the return of magic, a veritable antique without even the most basic AR, but the lack of modern accouterments didn’t seem to bother him. He simply scrolled through the enormous contact list until he reached the Js, selected a name near the bottom, and began to type, humming the bridge of a song that wouldn’t be composed for another ten years as his fingers moved unerringly over keys that had long since been worn blank.
***
“Come on,” Julius muttered, tapping his foot as Lark’s phone rang and rang and rang. When the shaman’s voicemail kicked in, he hung up and started the cycle over. Again.
After ten calls failed to garner even one answer, he was forced to admit defeat. He didn’t know if Lark was deliberately ignoring him or if the shaman was simply too drunk and/or stoned to answer his phone. Both were possible. Honestly, though, he wasn’t even sure why he was bothering. It wasn’t like Lark had given him a bad address on purpose. The shaman had probably just passed on the information Katya had given him, and no dragoness on the run would be stupid enough to give a human her actual location. The real question was, how stupid was Julius for thinking she had?
Pretty stupid, he decided, pacing back and forth on the cracked sidewalk. And dead. Very, very dead. It was almost midnight already. Even if he pushed Ian’s deadline to the absolute limit, he had less than twenty-four hours to find a dragon who didn’t want to be found in the DFZ. He wasn’t sure he could pull that off even with unlimited money. On his current budget, it was downright impossible, but if he didn’t get something, he was done for. So what was he going to—
“Julius?”
He stopped pacing with a jerk and looked up to see Marci standing tentatively on the curb a few feet away, her hands clasped in front of her. “Are you okay?” she asked. “You’ve been over here for a while.”
Julius rubbed the back of his neck. He supposed she did deserve an explanation, especially since he wasn’t going to be able to pay her the way things were headed, what with him being dead and all. Then again, who knew? Marci was clever and resourceful. Maybe she could help?
The idea of pulling a human he liked as much as Marci into his problems made Julius feel a little ill, but he didn’t know what else to do. So, with a deep breath, he told her the truth. “I’m in trouble.”
“I figured,” she said with a sympathetic smile. “That parking deck was supposed to be your missing girl, wasn’t it?”
Julius nodded. “If I don’t find her by tomorrow, I…” will be declared a failure and eaten. “I won’t get paid.”
“Which means I won’t get paid either,” Marci finished, putting two and two together. “Okay, what are our options?”
He stared at her, astonished. “You’re not mad?”
Marci shrugged. “Hazard of contract work. Sometimes things fall through, and getting mad about it doesn’t do anyone any good. Besides, it’s not like you’re trying to screw me over, right?”
“Of course not,” he said, horrified, which made her grin.
“See? Nothing to be mad about. I’d much rather spend my energy trying to save the job in any case. So, ideas?”
Julius didn’t answer. He was too busy savoring the wonderful astonishment at being treated like a partner instead of an idiot and a failure. “I have several ideas,” he said at last. “But they all require money.”
“Most things do,” she said with a sympathetic sigh. “What’s our operating budget?”
“About two dollars.”
Marci giggled. “Funny. Really, though, what is it?”
Julius shuffled his feet awkwardly. “I wasn’t making a joke.”
She froze, the grin vanishing from her face. “You weren’t?”
He shook his head.
“You don’t have any money?”
He shook his head again.
For several moments, Marci just stood there, mouth opening and closing like a fish. “But,” she got out at last, “you were in Arbor Square. Everyone in Arbor Square has money!”
“I was just there to meet my brother to get this job,” Julius said. “Come on, you didn’t really think I belonged in a place like that, did you? I mean, look at me.”
He waved his hand at his ratty T-shirt and jeans, and Marci began to sputter. “I thought you were wearing that ironically!” she cried. “You know, one of those ‘I’m wearing comfortable clothes because I’m too cool to care how rich I am’ guys.” She covered her face with her hands. “I can’t believe this. How were you planning to pay me?”
“After my brother paid me,” he said. “I never meant for things to get this bad. This job was supposed to be over at the party!”
Marci flopped against the lamppost with a hopeless sound, and Julius felt all the warmth she’d just given him drain away.
“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I never intended to mislead you.”
“I know, I know,” she muttered, staring up at the dark. “It’s just…this is always my luck, you know? Only I could bluff my way into one of the most exclusive restaurants in the DFZ and come out with the only client in the whole place who wasn’t loaded.” She shook her head with a bitter sigh before pushing off the streetlight. �
��Par for the course, I guess. Okay, sorry, pity party over. So how much money do think we’re going to need?”
Julius stared at her. “You’re not leaving?”
She snorted. “Come on. Just because you aren’t actually a secret millionaire doesn’t mean I’m going to abandon you. First, we still have a contract, and second, you kind of saved my life. If I left you now, how would I live with myself? That said, of course, I don’t actually have any idea what we’re going to do. As you might have noticed, I haven’t exactly had a lot of luck making quick cash in the DFZ.”
Julius didn’t have any immediate ideas either, but knowing that Marci wasn’t going to throw him over made him more hopeful than he’d felt in years. He was trying to figure out a way to tell her as much that wouldn’t make him sound like a desperate loser when his phone buzzed.
He’d actually forgotten he was holding the thing until it began to vibrate in his hand. For a soaring moment, he thought it was Lark calling him back, but when he glanced down at the AR, it wasn’t a call at all. It was a message from the Unknown Caller.
J,
A little bird told me you could use some help, and since I am of an extremely Helpful Nature, I have sent some your way. No need to thank me, A Good Deed Is Its Own Reward. Also, I already cleaned out your room back home and sold everything to cover the costs. Family first!
Yours etc., B
His face must have looked awful by the end, because Marci’s hands came up in her battle stance. “What?! What’s wrong?”
“My brother is sending me some help,” he said, reading the message again.
“Oh.” Her arms fell back to their natural positions. “That’s nice of him.”
“Nice isn’t the word I’d use,” Julius grumbled. “My brother’s a bit…eccentric. His idea of what’s appropriate can be a little off.” And dangerous, or obnoxious, or both. That said, Bob had given him a phone pre-loaded with money and IDs yesterday, which definitely counted as useful. Maybe lightning would strike twice?
He checked his balance, just in case, but it still read two dollars. Not money, then, but what else could Bob have meant by costs? And surely his brother hadn’t been able to sell off everything in his room already. Julius had only been gone a day. He glanced back down at the call button. Maybe he should phone his mother’s housekeeper and check?
Before he could do anything, though, an enormous crash echoed through through the dark, making them both jump. It sounded like someone had dropped a dumpster from five stories up. For several seconds, all Julius could hear was the ringing in his ears, but then he caught the unmistakable scrape of claws on asphalt, followed by a loud and horribly familiar shout.
“Julius?”
Oh no, he thought, cringing. No, no, no. He was going to kill Bob.
“What is that?” Marci said, looking all around.
“The opposite of help,” he growled, shoving his phone into his pocket. “Stay here, I’ll be right back.”
“But—”
“Stay here,” he said again. “Please.”
Marci did not look happy, but she did as he asked, standing right on the edge of the curb as Julius jogged across the street and around the the edge of the parking deck into the alley where he’d heard the crash.
Sure enough, when he rounded the corner, a man was standing under the alley’s lone working orange street light. He was exceptionally tall, almost six and a half feet, with a classically handsome face and military short black hair. He was pulling on a shirt when Julius spotted him, his bulging muscles flexing like he was a model in a protein shake commercial as he tugged the thin, tight cotton over his head. Thankfully, the bottom half of him was already clothed in dark jeans, though he’d probably only put those on first so he’d have somewhere to hang the enormous sword currently sheathed on his belt.
He must have heard Julius coming, because his bright green eyes locked on him as soon as his head was free of his shirt, and he lifted his sculpted chin in greeting. “’Sup?”
Julius covered his face with his hand. “Please,” he groaned. “Please tell me you didn’t just fly here.”
“Only from the airport,” the dragon said, leaning down to pull on his socks. “Cab fares in this place are murder.”
He started shoving his feet into a pair of black motorcycle boots next, and Julius dropped his hands with a sigh, wondering why he’d expected anything different.
With shoulders like an orc linebacker and an air of absolute confidence that Julius would never in a million years be able to match, his brother Justin came from opposite end of the Heartstriker gene pool. They shared the family basics—black hair, high cheekbones and, of course, the green eyes—but otherwise they could have been strangers. This was especially odd because Justin and Julius were full brothers, hatched from the same clutch only minutes apart. But where Julius had come out as the runt, Justin had shot straight to top, as evidenced by the sword at his hip.
The black-sheathed blade was a larger version of Chelsie’s, one of five Fangs of the Heartstriker given only to Bethesda’s deadliest weapons. But while Justin’s battle prowess was unquestioned, Julius couldn’t help wondering sometimes if the rest of his brain hadn’t quite caught up yet.
“Justin,” Julius said, as calmly as he could manage. “You can’t just fly around in the DFZ. Do you want Chelsie to gut you?”
“She’d have to catch me first,” his brother replied with a smug smile. “You look terrible, by the way.”
Julius decided to ignore that comment. “What are you doing here? I thought you were in China.”
“I was, but then I heard Mother kicked you out, so when Bob sent me a ticket to the DFZ, I thought I’d come lend you a hand.”
Julius’s stomach sank. “You heard about that in China?”
“Everyone’s heard about it,” Justin said. “There’s actually a betting pool going for how long you’ll last.” He arched an dark eyebrow. “You know, a little gratitude wouldn’t be out of order. I did just fly halfway around the world to come help you.”
Julius sighed. “Thank you. But—”
“You’re welcome,” Justin said, slapping his hands together. “Now, who are we killing?”
Julius was opening his mouth to say they wouldn’t be killing anyone when he heard soft, quick footsteps in the street behind him, and his blood went cold. Oh no, he thought as Justin’s eyes darted to the mouth of the alley. Not now.
But, of course, Marci chose that moment to walk around the corner. She stopped with a gasp, her hands flying to her mouth just as Justin’s fell to the hilt of his sword. For a second, Julius thought his brother was going to attack first and ask questions later, but Justin did nothing of the sort. He did something much worse.
“Well, well, well,” he said an innuendo-laden voice loud enough to be heard for blocks. “Is that your human?”
And that was when Julius began praying that Chelsie was watching, because a quick death from behind was starting to sound very nice indeed.
Chapter 7
“She’s surprisingly hot,” Justin went on, nodding in approval. “Good job, Julius. Didn’t know you had it in you.”
Julius flashed Marci an apologetic look before grabbing his brother and yanking him down with a strength he’d never known he had. “She’s not my human,” he whispered frantically. “She’s a human, and she’s helping me. She also doesn’t know what we are.”
Any sane dragon would have gotten the hint after that and shut up. Justin, of course, paid no attention whatsoever.
He pushed out of Julius’s hold and walked down the alley, coming to a stop in front of Marci with his legs apart and his hands on his hips like a draconic Conan the Barbarian. “You, girl,” he said. “What’s your name?”
Marci shot a nervous glance at Julius, which he couldn’t return thanks to the palm he was currently slapping against his forehead. “Um, I’m Marci Novalli.”
Justin nodded like this was acceptable and stuck out his hand. “Justin, Knight
of the Mountain and Fifth Blade of Bethesda. You know, you don’t look half bad for a human.”
“Thanks? I think?” Marci said, shaking Justin’s offered hand like it was an unexploded land mine. “I’m guessing you’re Julius’s brother?”
“His older brother,” Justin said pointedly.
“By two minutes,” Julius snapped, cutting between them before this situation could finish going from bad to worse and move on to catastrophic. “Sorry, Marci, can I borrow Justin for a sec?”
She backed off at once, putting her hands up with clear relief. “All yours. Sorry I interrupted. I’m just going to go back to the car. You guys reconnect or whatever.”
Justin watched her walk away with an appreciative ogle at her backside. “You have unexpectedly good taste,” he said, turning back to Julius. “But do you really have time to be playing around with humans? Mother’s going to eat you soon if you don’t start showing some initiative.”
“I’m working on it,” Julius said. “And Marci is an integral part of that, which is why you need to shut up before you get her killed.”
“What are you so worked up about? Lots of dragons have humans. Just keep her on a tight leash and you’ll be fine.”
Julius closed his eyes, wishing he could close his ears. This was exactly why his brother couldn’t stay. Five minutes with him and Marci would have to be stupid not to guess the truth. Of course, given five minutes, Justin would probably manage to insult her so badly she’d be ready to turn them both in to Algonquin for the bounty. Julius half wanted to turn Justin in himself already, but while he wasn’t feeling it at the moment, Justin was usually one of the few brothers he actually liked, which was why he decided to nip this in the bud as nicely as possible.
“Listen, Justin,” he said in a calm, measured voice. “I really do appreciate you coming all this way to support me. It means a lot, but this isn’t your kind of operation. I’m doing a delicate job for Ian, and—”