by Amy Star
regular humans. So, it’s a were-dragon or vampires. If I want to know if there are any rogue vampires in the area, asking the local coterie seems like the best bet.”
“Basically, all vampires start fires at some point or another,” Jasper replied, pitching his tone to a parody of innocence. “A lot of us predate electricity.”
Mitch swallowed down the urge to growl or, possibly, attempt to strangle Jasper. It probably wouldn’t go well. Head still in hand, he pointed out, “You know that’s not what I mean. Have any coterie members been slipping away? Or has anyone noticed any vampires that aren’t part of the coterie lurking around?”
Jasper was grinning by that point, his fangs on full display. “What, do you think I’ve got some sort of encyclopedia of vampires in my brain? You think we all just keep perfect watch on each other all the time? We come and go all the time; we need to eat, and that happens a lot more
expediently if we go get food, rather than waiting for it to just swan on into an abandoned
building.” He paused for a moment, before gesturing flippantly to Mitch with one hand as he drawled, “Present company excluded, of course.”
“I don’t decide to murder the nearest convenient person on a lark whenever I get a bit peckish and want some dinner,” Mitch returned blandly, folding his arms and shifting his weight to one side. “I figure that means I’ve earned a little leeway, and I can swan on into a few places when I feel like it.”
It was a bit harsh, maybe. To his knowledge, the brewery coterie had been letting people go. That didn’t really excuse the abducting and the injuring, but even so, it still wasn’t murder. And it was, perhaps, not the best time to broach that topic.
There was a moment after Mitch said it when nothing happened. Everything was quiet. Silent almost, and the atmosphere of the abandoned building seemed to press in on them. It occurred to Mitch a bit belatedly that he should, perhaps, not have said that. Or maybe he should have at least phrased it a bit more delicately.
“I don’t think we’re going to get along,” Jasper observed finally, trying far too hard to sound
regretful when he felt no such thing.
CHAPTER FOUR
Everything looked different from up in the air. The forest shrank until it looked like a diorama made of toothpicks and tongue depressors all dusted with black powder, and though the town steadily got closer, it still looked more like a drawing on a map below them, save for the glowing points of light from streetlights and windows.
With each flap of her wings, Sabine rocked up and down, and for the first few moments, Melissa swore she was going to go tumbling off to fall to her death, turning into a gory, grisly pancake on the ground below.
It was a mild fear, though, entirely trumped by the knowledge that Melissa was riding on the back of a dragon. (Wyvern? Was that actually the right term? Considering Sabine didn’t have any front legs, but then again, Melissa supposed if she was actually a were-wyvern, Sabine would have said as much, and honestly it was probably a very pedantic distinction, and there were more important things to focus on just then.)
After a few moments of steadily rising, the motion actually became fairly predictable, and it was easier for Melissa to keep her balance. By the time Sabine rose as high as she planned on getting, she stopped flapping for the most part, instead simply gliding along smoothly, save for the occasional adjustment of the ends of her wings to catch a breeze and change her angle.
Slowly, Melissa peeled herself away from Sabine’s neck, so she could properly look around in open wonder. It was like being on a different planet or in a different world. Melissa had been in an airplane before on numerous occasions, true, but it didn’t compare. Being able to spread one arm out to her side with her fingers splayed open and feel the way the air passed turned it into an entirely different experience.
The clouds seemed close enough that Melissa swore she might be able to touch them, and she found herself reaching a hand up high over her head before she could even scold herself for
being ridiculous. There were no cotton candy clouds to touch, and the stars remained stubbornly out of reach, but the air as it flowed between her spread, outstretched fingers was cool and crisp, and she tipped her face up as she lowered her hand once again.
Even if she fell off right that instant and plummeted towards the ground below, she was pretty sure she would still be able to die happy.
It was a brief flight, though. Sabine moved at a decent pace, and the brewery wasn’t that far away. It seemed like no time at all passed before Sabine began to slow for a landing. She seemed strangely awkward as she did, as if she was making a deliberate effort to land more gently than she otherwise might. If that was the case, Melissa was grateful for the effort, considering she didn’t even want to know how roughly she might land on any other occasion.
Once Sabine’s claws were safely on the ground, Melissa slid down, stumbling forward a few steps once she landed. Her arms and legs felt like jelly from clinging so tightly. She opened her mouth to make a joke, only for her mouth to close with a click, as Sabine abruptly barged past her, towards the brewery.
Brow furrowing and eyebrows drawing together in confusion, Melissa followed her at an easy jog, only to pick up the pace as she got close enough to hear the unmistakable noise of fighting coming from inside the building.
Mitch had gotten into a fight. Of course, he had. Melissa couldn’t even find it in herself to be surprised about such a discovery.
Sabine reached the building first, of course, coming to a bay door that hadn’t been opened in years. She leaned down, caught the rusted handle in her teeth, and heaved upwards. The metal shrieked as the door reluctantly grated upwards, until the opening was just big enough for Sabine to duck through it. She got stuck for just a moment, before she snapped her wings open above her, forcing the door the rest of the way open. There was the sound of buckling metal, and Melissa got the impression that the door was never going to close again after that.
She put on a burst of speed to follow as Sabine flung herself into the building, and as Melissa followed her in, she had to stop and stare. It was…quite a sight, to put it mildly, and she
wondered if this sort of thing was going to become commonplace in her life. If so, she had rather mixed feelings about it.
Mitch’s jeans and shoes were tossed off to one side, and Mitch had transformed at some point, the tattered remnants of his shirt still clinging to his fur. He had his jaws clamped around the arm of a vampire who looked as if he couldn’t have been older than fourteen, though that didn’t make the vampire look especially less threatening, with his fangs bared to such an extent that it looked as if his jaw had extended.
As Melissa watched, the diminutive vampire caught Mitch in a headlock and managed to toss him aside. Mitch hit the floor and tumbled, only to throw himself back to his feet almost immediately, barreling into the vampire as quickly as he could. Both of them landed in a heap on the ground, and Mitch’s jaws gaped open as he bore down on the vampire, aiming for his throat, though he came up short as the vampire caught Mitch’s upper jaw in one hand, caught his lower jaw in the other hand, and wrestled him back to arm’s length, until Mitch had to wrench himself free and stumble back before either of his jaws were broken or dislocated.
And then, Sabine shrieked, her jaws gaping open as she did, and she spread her wings out to her sides until she looked large enough to almost fill the entire room. Mitch and the vampire both ground to a halt as they stared at her, slowly backing away. Melissa flapped a hand until she caught Mitch’s attention and waved him over, though her attention was largely still focused on Sabine as she flung herself onto the vampire like a scaly missile with a bad temper.
As Mitch loped over to Melissa’s side, Sabine bashed the side of her head into the vampire’s torso, sending him toppling to the ground. He scrabbled backwards, trying to put some distance between the two of them as he scrambled back to his feet, but by the time he was standing again, Sabine simply c
aught his arm in her teeth and yanked him back down to the ground.
Mitch and Melissa watched silently for a moment, before finally Mitch transformed once again, if only so he could observe, “I see you found a dragon.”
With that observation made, Mitch sat down heavily on the concrete beside Melissa, panting to catch his breath. “Meet Jasper,” he offered with a bland sort of amusement as he waved towards the vampire, who was backpedaling away from one of Sabine’s wing claws at that moment. “He’s a ray of sunshine, as you can see.” Mitch sat for only a moment before he picked himself up off of the ground to fetch his pants and his shoes from where they had been tossed before.
“Were you expecting this to happen when you came here?” Melissa asked, wondering at just how casual Mitch seemed about a vampire attempting to kill him.
“No?” he replied, sounding bemused by the question. “I mean, not to any huge degree, but I tend to assume just about any inhuman creature might want to attack me no matter what I do.”
Melissa rolled her eyes. “Really?” she asked flatly. “You’re an inhuman creature, and you use it to find people lost in forest fires. I really doubt you’re the sole good-natured inhuman in the world,” she informed him blandly. “I mean, I’m sure there’s someone somewhere in the world who really is the most unique, but I don’t think it’s anyone in this brewery.”
Mitch scoffed and rolled his eyes, one hand on his hip and his pants hanging limply from his other hand. “Really?” he sighed. “Someone tries to murder me, and you’re going to lecture me about needing an attitude adjustment?”
“You usually need an attitude adjustment,” Melissa reminded him, folding her arms and shifting her weight to one side. “Now seems like as good of a time to point it out as any other,” she added, feigning innocence as she did.
The impromptu argument didn’t continue for long, though, as Melissa’s attention was drawn back to the fight going on only a matter of feet away.
Sabine stumbled back as Jasper managed to slam the heel of his hand against her nose, followed by a punch that landed soundly in the middle of the hollow of her lower jaw. She gagged and stumbled back a step, though she recovered quickly and surged forward, sending Jasper sprawling as she butted the flat of her head against his chest. He rolled to the side before she could beat her wings down against him, so instead all she managed was to carve a pair of matching grooves into the concrete, as easily as Melissa might have chopped a potato in half with a knife.
“Quite a sight,” Mitch observed after a moment, watching with nearly rapt attention. “I have to say, this isn’t what I was expecting when we said we were going to track down a dragon and some vampires to question.”
“Quite a sight,” Melissa agreed quietly, but she couldn’t find it within herself to find it entertaining in the same way Mitch seemed to. She wasn’t even sure how he found it entertaining, considering he very well could have died if she and Sabine hadn’t showed up when they did.
Slowly, she looked at Mitch, just watching from her peripheral vision for a few seconds before turning to look at him properly. He looked more or less alright, though she had no idea how long the fight had been going on before they showed up or how intense it might have been. And while she wasn’t a doctor, she knew enough about injuries to know that they weren’t always immediately visible or apparent.
If Mitch noticed her staring at him, he didn’t react, instead seeming content to watch as Jasper dropped to the floor and actually crawled under Sabine before she could grab him.
It turned out not to be the best idea, though, and Melissa watched with alarm as Sabine partially turned and kicked him away, so he landed on his back on the floor. She stalked forward, closing the last bit of distance between them and planting one of her feet in the middle of his chest, pinning him to the floor. She watched him for a moment, tipping her head this way and then that way as Jasper stared up at her with slowly increasing terror, until she reared her head back, and he squeezed his eyes shut.
Sabine made a noise like a car in the distance, its engine roaring without a care, and there was a smell like smoke and burning chemicals as she prepared to finish the fight.
Melissa could have simply watched the fight and watched the way the end of it played out. Neither Mitch nor Sabine were likely to say anything about it if all she did was observe. But she couldn’t do that. More than that, she didn’t even want to do that.
Something about the fact that the vampire looked like a child tugged at Melissa’s heart, so as Sabine’s head reared back, sparks jumping in the back of her throat, Melissa skittered a few steps closer, barking, “Hold on!” as she did. She hugged Sabine’s jacket to her chest like a security blanket.
Sabine came up short, closing her mouth with a sharp, meaty snap and blinking at Melissa
slowly. As if to translate her confusion into words, Mitch wondered blandly, “Pardon?”
“I think he gets the picture,” Melissa stated.
“He wanted to kill me,” Mitch groused, pulling his pants back on finally.
“Were you being an ass?” Melissa asked flatly. “If you say no, I’m not going to believe you, so just admit that yes, you were being an ass.”
Mitch threw his hands up in exasperation and turned away, as Sabine pulled her foot off of
Jasper’s chest and backed away a few paces. Slowly, Jasper sat up, righting his clothes as he did. He glanced fleetingly towards Melissa’s face a few times, before he blurted out in a rush, “None of us have been doing anything weird. I mean, I can’t guarantee you aren’t still looking for
vampires, since when it comes to anyone outside this specific coterie, I literally could not give less of a damn, but no one here is your pyromaniac. We prefer fires we can actually put out if we need to.”
Melissa nodded slowly. “Alright,” she replied. “Thanks.”
With that, Jasper skittered deeper into the brewery.
They were gathering a crowd at that point, silhouettes moving through the shadows. They began to back away slowly as Jasper retreated, and they backed off entirely when Sabine bared her teeth.
It seemed like a good time to get out of the immediate area, and the three of them made their way back outside to the crumbling, weed-strewn asphalt. Finally, Sabine transformed again, and when she held out an expectant hand, Melissa tossed her coat back to her. When Sabine shrugged it on, it was just long enough to protect her modesty.
“Well, that was a thing,” she observed after a moment, and Melissa snorted out a laugh.
“Ah, yeah,” she agreed, before she gestured between Sabine and Mitch. “Mitch, this is Sabine. Sabine, Mitch. He’s a bear. He’s also grumpy and shouldn’t be allowed to do anything related to PR.”
Mitch growled and flipped her off, to which Melissa’s response was to pat him on the shoulder like a fussy toddler.
“Anyway,” she carried on, “Sabine didn’t start the fires, but she noticed they were happening and was poking around.”
Shrugging and then stretching her arms out in front of herself and then up over her head, Sabine supplied, “I don’t really have anything concrete yet, but I’ll get in touch with you if I find anything. Sound like a plan?”
“As close to a plan as we’ve got right now,” Melissa agreed pleasantly, and she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. “Do you have a number I can use to get in touch with you?”
Sabine reached out with one hand, hand flexing with expectant, grabby fingers in Melissa’s
direction until Melissa handed over her phone. Sabine typed her number into it and texted herself before handing Melissa’s phone back.
“Get in touch whenever you need me,” she offered, before she shrugged out of her jacket once again and transformed. She picked her jacket up carefully in her teeth, careful not to tear it, just before she launched herself into the air.
Nothing happened for a few moments after that, save for Mitch stomping his feet back into his shoes and halfheartedly plucking t
he last few strands of his shirt off of his shoulders. But it was late, and it wasn’t getting any less late; Melissa didn’t want to linger any longer. Besides, she still needed to make sure Mitch was actually alright.
Melissa held a hand out expectantly, and when Mitch didn’t react, she wiggled her fingers and said, “Keys. We’re heading to my house, so I can make sure you’re actually in one piece and that you aren’t just trying to be a macho man and pretend you’re fine.”
“I am fine,” he insisted sourly, but Melissa just kept brandishing her hand at him, until finally he huffed, pulled his keys out of his pocket, and handed them over to her. She wasn’t going to comment on it out loud, and she knew Mitch would deny it even if she did, but he was pretty
blatantly sulking as she ushered him over to the car and into the passenger seat.
“Ugh,” she groaned, hopping into the driver’s seat. “You drive an automatic?” She slid the key into the ignition and turned it, and the engine rumbled to life. “Honestly, how boring can you get?”
“I’m more than happy to drive if it bothers you that much,” Mitch returned flatly, though he was already buckling himself in.