Drinking Destiny

by Pippa Amberwine

  Table of Contents

  Drinking Destiny

  Copyright

  Books by Pippa Amberwine

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Preview of Stone Cold Magic

  Drinking Destiny

  A SHATTERED MAGIC NOVEL

  Vampire’s Elixir Series Book Three

  PIPPA AMBERWINE

  with

  JAYNE FAITH

  Copyright

  Drinking Destiny

  Copyright © 2018 by Pippa Amberwine

  All rights reserved as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to a real person, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the authors.

  Edited and proofread by: Tia Silverthorne Bach of Indie Books Gone Wild

  Cover designed by: Deranged Doctor Designs

  Published in the United States of America

  Books by Pippa Amberwine

  Vampire’s Elixir Series

  urban fantasy

  Chasing Legends

  Riding Rifts

  Drinking Destiny

  Books by Jayne Faith

  Ella Grey Series

  urban fantasy

  Stone Cold Magic

  Dark Harvest Magic

  Demon Born Magic

  Blood Storm Magic

  Tara Knightley Series

  urban fantasy

  Oath of Blood (prequel novella)

  Edge of Magic

  Echo of Bone

  more to come

  Stone Blood Series

  urban fantasy

  Blood of Stone

  Stone Blood Legacy

  Rise of the Stone Court

  Reign of the Stone Queen

  War of the Fae Gods

  Sapient Salvation Series

  dystopian sci-fi romance

  The Selection

  The Awakening

  The Divining

  The Claiming

  Chapter One

  Katie

  Katie and Jevyn’s quarters

  Nindock’s town outside of Boise, Idaho, Earth

  “HOW MANY HAVE we got so far?” Jevyn asked.

  I looked over at him. We’d been sharing a room for the last week in one of the buildings in Nindock’s town. It had been glorious, but I wasn’t one to kiss and tell, so that was it on that front.

  Right then, he was pacing back and forth across the floor, wearing a groove where there was no right to be one. I was sitting on the bed, holding a notebook and with a pen behind my ear. I made a show of opening the book and flicking through a few pages.

  “You want it in round numbers?” I asked without looking up.

  “I want it in any kind of numbers.”

  “Okay. In round numbers, we have zero, and in actual numbers, we also have zero.”

  “Damn.” Jevyn slammed his hand down on the table, causing everything on it to rattle and making me jump.

  “Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to upset you. It’s been a tough week, I know.”

  It hadn’t all been tough. We’d spent the days in Nindock’s camp, which appeared to be our semi-permanent home, trying to persuade the dragons who lived there to go back to Dracos. The spare time we had spent in our room. No explanations necessary there.

  “It’s not your fault,” he said, coming to join me on the bed. A flicker of excitement tingled as he draped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me in. “I need to be more persuasive.”

  “How?” It seemed like a sensible question.

  I peered at him while he thought. I could see the muscles in his cheeks working as he ground his teeth together while he tried to come up with an idea. Then he let his breath out in a rush.

  “I don’t know,” he admitted. “Everyone I speak to understands that my mother has commanded all the dragons back to Dracos, but whenever I mention that, they just smile politely and turn away. I’m also getting a little fed up being told repeatedly that we have no sway over the dragons here . . . again.”

  “I hate to say it, but it’s true.”

  He faced me. “I know, but I have to try. I don’t want these dragons to come to any more harm than they have already from Nindock’s half-assed attempts at opening rifts.”

  I couldn’t help a small laugh. “You’re picking up the speech patterns.”

  “What? Oh, sorry. I’ve been spending too much time with Nindock and Kam.”

  “I noticed.” I paused for a second because I was hoping Jevyn wouldn’t go all defensive on me. “You and Nindock seem to be getting on better now,” I said as neutrally as I could.

  “You think?” he said, and then he seemed to consider it for a moment. “Okay. I admit I doubted his motives at the start, but after the raid on Chemosys . . . Well, let’s just say my opinion of him went up a little.”

  “Be careful, or you’ll end up liking him and working with him.”

  “We’ll have to see about that. I’m sure he doesn’t much care what I think of him.”

  “You might be surprised. I think his opinion of you might have improved too.”

  “Maybe,” Jevyn said, standing and holding out his hand. “Let’s go see if we can persuade at least one dragon to go back. I think if we don’t see any numbers today, we might as well give up. It seems like a lot of effort for a minimal return.”

  I’d accept that point of view. Truth be told, I couldn’t see any of them going. They might not be living in the lap of luxury with Nindock, but they were living in relative freedom, something I’d hoped might appeal to Jevyn as I lay in his arms for the last several nights.

  I couldn’t see us being able to do that on Dracos; in fact, if Jevyn’s mother had her way, I would never see him again if he went back and the rifts were all closed.

  He pulled me to my reluctant feet, and we headed into what had become the communal area for the rest of the team. I expected them to want to keep to themselves, but they’d surprised me by volunteering to help the dragons with whatever the team could.

  The room was deserted.

  Apart from Derek.

  And Sparks.

  Neither of them had seen daylight for at least three or four days. Derek ignored us as we left while Sparks tossed me a grin and a cheeky wink, which was weird because she never normally seemed to pay much attention to anything the rest of the group was doing dating-wise. I was fairly certain she had a crush on Derek, which for me was beyond explanation, but to each his or her own. Maybe she saw me and Jevyn and projected what she saw onto her and Derek. Who knew?

  Once we were outside, it was a five-minute walk up to the marketplace, which was as bustling as ever, and then a couple more minutes up to the saloon. I wasn’t entirely sure that Nindock didn’t sleep there. It was still early, yet when we went in, he
was there, a drink on the table, Kam on a seat opposite, and the bloodletting project in full swing.

  Okay, it might have sounded a bit haphazard, and I had to think twice about the hygiene aspect of taking blood from dragons in a bar, but it was the only place in town that had a refrigerator large enough to store it all once the operation really got moving.

  For the time being, things were in the tryout phase, making sure people knew how to take the blood and how much. Having anemic dragons wandering around Nindock’s town was most definitely not part of the plan.

  “Jevyn, Katie, come and sit. Have a drink,” Nindock said.

  “It’s a bit early for me,” I said. “I will have coffee if there’s any going.”

  Nindock lifted a hand and clicked his fingers. I always enjoyed the barkeep’s reaction when Nindock went all medieval king on him like that, and I was rewarded with a first-class eye-roll and a begrudging lift of the coffee pot.

  I made sure to thank him when he dropped it—literally—on the table, and then I mopped up the spill which was only small.

  “So, what can I do for you both?” Nindock sounded peculiarly jocular that morning. When a very attractive and large-chested female dragon came over and whispered in his ear, then giggled when he whispered back, it didn’t take much working out to guess why he was so cheerful.

  “We just came by to see how things are going,” I said. “When do you think you’ll be in full production?”

  “I’m not entirely sure. That mad science woman from Chemosys is insisting on testing blood from all the different types of dragons to see how effective they are. Once we get the go-ahead, it’s all systems go.”

  “Great,” I said. In truth, I was worried about something, but I hadn’t said anything until I was sure Nindock was good for his side of the bargain.

  “Who’s in the chair?” Jevyn asked.

  Oh, well, my concern could wait for a bit.

  “His name is Curvid. He was one of the first dragons to come over from Dracos with me.”

  Jevyn stood from his seat and walked over to where Curvid was sitting in a chair accompanied by the big-chested female. Ah—she was the nurse. I wondered if it was a conscious decision to encourage the male dragons to donate, but I didn’t think even Nindock would stoop quite that low.

  I stood up and wandered over with my coffee. I hadn’t seen the process yet and was interested to see how they were handling it.

  The nurse was holding a plastic sample pot while Curvid squeezed drops of blood from his thumb into it. Not very high tech.

  I counted twenty drops before the nurse offered him a Band-Aid and then took his other thumb and jabbed a pin into it before squeezing the next lot of blood out of him. Another ten drops, another Band-Aid, and the whole process was over.

  “It doesn’t look like very much,” I said to Nindock.

  “Early days, Katie, early days. This is off to the scientist lady to test it first. I’m just waiting for her to give the go-ahead, and then it will be different.” Nindock had come over and was looking over my shoulder. He reached over and picked up the pot, took the lid from Nurse Boobs, and screwed it on tight. “This little pot will be worth plenty once we get going. All we need to do is agree on a price.”

  I straightened. “Yeah, about that.”

  “Yes. Don’t go pulling out of the deal now, Katie.” He had a slightly dangerous edge to his voice, and I noticed Kam sitting up and listening attentively.

  “No, no, I don’t want to pull out, but I do have a problem. Call it a difficulty. A roadblo—”

  “What’s the problem?” Nindock cut in.

  “Well, the thing is—”

  He interrupted me again. “I’ve gone to a lot of expense to set this all up.”

  I looked at the table in puzzlement. “You sourced a pin and some plastic pots.”

  “I’m paying people for the samples, and I have to look after the nurse.”

  My lids lowered partway. “I’ll bet.”

  He ignored the snark. “And I’m having to house and feed the crazy scientist and provide her with equipment.”

  “Why do you keep calling her crazy? She’s working on the samples, isn’t she?”

  “Sure, but every time someone goes near her, she goes nutso.”

  “You say ‘someone’?”

  “Okay, I mean me and Kam. If we go to see her, she kinda flies off the handle.”

  I looked at Nindock for a moment and then across the room to Kam. I didn’t think either of them would hurt her or try anything with her. So, why should the woman still be mad at them? They saved her life. Kinda.

  “Maybe I’ll go see her. Perhaps she won’t be as mad with me as she is with you,” I said.

  “Yeah?” Nindock said, shaking his head. “Well, good luck with that. Here.” He tossed the plastic pot of blood over to me. “Maybe you could drop this with her while you’re visiting.”

  I stuck it into my pocket and internally rolled my eyes at the complete lack of strict protocols that were being observed in the blood-gathering process.

  Still, who was I to complain? As long as we all ended up with dragon blood that could hold back the hunger, it was worth skipping a few safety checks at this stage. When the process began in earnest, I would make sure everyone knew what they should be doing.

  “So, what’s this little problem you have?” Nindock asked.

  I was almost hoping he’d forgotten all about that.

  “Well,” I said, trying to think how to do what I needed to do without having Nindock and Kam go batshit crazy on me. “There’s a joke we tell down here. You might have heard it. A guy goes into a bar, orders three double whiskeys, and downs them all one after the other. He looks at the barkeep and says, ‘I shouldn’t have drunk all those so quickly with what I’ve got.’ The barkeep looks at him and says, ‘What have you got?’ and the guy slips his hand in his pocket and then slams it down on the bar. ‘Fifty cents,’ he says, sliding his hand from the coin.”

  I glanced over at Jevyn who appeared puzzled, and I could see he was running the joke through his head and coming up with a big fat nothing. We had talked about the barter system on Dracos and about money on Earth. It seemed an odd idea to him, alien almost he’d said, so maybe that was why he was struggling with the joke.

  Nindock had no such difficulty coming to terms with the concept of money, so I hoped he got the point of the story. What he did after that was more up in the air.

  “So, what you’re saying is that you only have fifty cents?”

  I winced. “Kinda.”

  “Okay, let me hazard a guess that by ‘kinda’ you mean you have no money at all?” he asked.

  “That would be a more accurate summation of the situation,” I said, hoping my bright smile would temper the anger in his voice.

  “So, yes would be your answer?” Nindock asked.

  It was going to happen sooner or later, but it still didn’t stop the little knot of anxiety in my gut from blowing up into a beach ball.

  “Yes,” I said quietly, keeping my head up. I wasn’t about to apologize for stringing him along. I—no, we—needed this blood, and we needed it soon.

  “So, how do you propose to pay?”

  “I was hoping we could come to an arrangement,” I said.

  “Let me guess, I provide the blood, and you guys keep on providing security?”

  “Something like that.”

  “I can hire people to do security.”

  “Didn’t work last time.”

  He had to admit that was true. Last time SCAR had rolled into town without anyone trying to stop them.

  “Okay,” he said. “I’ll accept that, but you still need to pay something toward the blood, especially now that you’re planning on bringing in other vampires for it.”

  Damn. I was hoping the security gig would have been enough.

  “Okay,” I said. “Give me a few days to get something organized.”

  “Make sure you do,” Nindock said, stepp
ing closer. I felt Jevyn stiffen beside me, ready to step in if necessary. “Kam is getting bored, and I’d hate him to get it in his head that you’re trying to scam me here. I’m trying to do the right thing, but you gotta meet me halfway.”

  The mixture of threat and pleading was pretty effective, and to be fair, Nindock was trying to do the right thing. At least, it seemed like it.

  “You got it,” I said. “A few days is all I’m asking for.”

  “A few days is what you have.”

  “Let’s go deliver that blood,” Jevyn said, his hand on my arm gently tugging.

  I nodded and followed Jevyn out of the bar. As soon as we were off the deck, he grabbed my hand and pulled me around the side of the building and out of sight.

  “Katie, how do you propose to get your hands on money like that? How much will you need?”

  I looked up into his gorgeous golden dragon eyes and smiled sweetly. “I have a plan,” I said and couldn’t help but laugh when Jevyn rolled his eyes, dropped his chin, and shook his head.

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” he said.

  I leaned up and kissed him on his bristly cheek.

  “Don’t worry,” I said. “It’ll be fine.”

  I skipped around him and headed back to the street.

  Chapter Two

  Jevyn

  Nindock’s town

  “WHAT?” I ASKED, flabbergasted. We’d walked maybe halfway to where the doctor was living and working while she was being kept in Nindock’s Town.

  “I said I used to work with the company a while ago providing security. Their own security is a joke. They use the same route all the time, and the people on the trucks are vastly underpaid and couldn’t give a sh— I mean, they couldn’t care less about the job. It’ll be a piece of cake.” Katie was smiling like she was discussing arranging a child’s birthday party.

  “You want to rob an armored car?” I said, almost unable to get my mind around the idea.