Flames, page 4
I shook him off.
“Wait,” he whispered.
I hurled myself out the door.
* * *
I ended up at Happy Harry’s, which was my bar. I didn’t own it or anything, but it was somewhat of a second home to me. It wasn’t a fancy place. Mostly slayers and drakes hung out here. There was never a band playing or anything like that, just a jukebox in the corner that seemed to be mostly stocked with hits from the 1990s.
But when I got there, nothing was playing, because it was like ten in the morning, and the place had just opened. From the looks of things, I was the first customer of the day.
Not a problem. I sidled up to the bar. It was right near the entrance, forming a backwards U-shape away from the door. To the right-hand side was a bigger room with tables and the aforementioned jukebox.
The bartender looked up from where she was standing. She was reading something on her phone and drinking coffee. When she saw me, she smiled. “Well, if it isn’t Clarke Gannon. Haven’t seen you around in quite some time.”
“Yeah, I’ve been out of town,” I said. I knew most of the bartenders in Happy Harry’s by name. It was good practice if only because it allowed me to get their attention when they were distracted on a crowded night. This bartender was Celeste. She tended to work the day shift, so I didn’t know her as well as some of the other bartenders. But I liked her fine. She was always nice to me.
“Corona and lime?” she said, heading for the cooler.
“Yes, please,” I said, and a wash of calm came over me. If there were Coronas and lime in the world, things couldn’t be so bad.
She got the beer out of the cooler and brought it over to the counter. She set down the beer, opened a chest refrigerator and took out a plate of already-sliced limes and lemons. She shoved one in the top of my Corona bottle. “I’ve heard some rumors about you.”
“Yeah, so what else is new?” I was always being talked about in this bar. I wasn’t a typical slayer, considering that I insisted on killing dragons primarily to save people, not for profit. People were always trying to figure me out, because they didn’t understand me. And what people don’t understand, they don’t trust. Most slayers are mercenaries, but not me.
She set my beer down in front of me. “Not the typical stuff about how you’re actually an undercover cop.”
“Well, that one never made any sense at all. If I were a cop, why would I try to stick out?”
Celeste laughed. “That’s what I said.”
I pushed the lime down into the neck of the bottle, and then put my lips to it to catch the foam that bubbled up.
“You want a glass?” she said.
“Not a chance,” I said. Corona out of a glass was different than out of a bottle. Inferior, in my personal opinion.
“So, this new stuff I hear, it’s just people blowing hot air too?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “What do you hear?”
“That you work for some secret project funded by rich dragons and you moved to some fancy condo near the beach.”
“I did move,” I said. “But no secret project.”
She narrowed her eyes. “But would you even tell me if you were? It’s supposed to be secret.”
I laughed.
She laughed.
I took another drink of my beer. Delicious, tart goodness. Everything was going to be okay. I closed my eyes to savor the taste and feel the bubbly liquid travel into my stomach.
“So, why are you here day drinking?”
I shrugged. I ran my finger over condensation that was starting to bead up on the glass.
She leaned over the bar. “There’s no one else here. And isn’t that what bartenders are for? To tell your troubles to?”
“I’m fine, really,” I said.
She raised her eyebrows.
“You know anything about the dragon mating bond?” I said.
“Why would you bring that up?”
“No reason.” I took a slug of Corona. “Never mind.”
“I don’t know much about it,” she said. “You always see those rich dragon power couples on the news making googly eyes at each other, of course. And there’s the fact they never get divorced.”
“Yeah,” I muttered.
“I had a friend once who had a fling with a dragon. They were both kids, right out of high school. She worked at one of the clubs here and he was on vacation with his buddies, and they struck something up. It actually got pretty serious.”
“Yeah?” I said. What did this have to do with the mating bond?
“They were together for almost a year. He had her quit her job and come around the world with him. He took her to Europe. She would call me and tell me how happy she was.”
“Wow,” I said, drinking more beer. Actually, I had a pretty good idea where this was going.
“And then one day, he met his mate,” said Celeste.
“And it all ended,” I said.
“Yeah,” said Celeste. “My friend said that they were out together at a bar, and he started talking to some woman. She didn’t think anything of it, being secure in their relationship. She went off to dance or something, and when she looked for him, he was gone. He’d gone back to his mate’s hotel room, hadn’t even said goodbye to my friend. He broke up with her via text the next morning. Said he was sorry, but that he’d had no idea what real love was until he met his mate, and he wished her the best. She had no money, and she was stranded.”
“In Europe?” I said.
“Oh, no, this happened when they were back in the United States,” said Celeste. “They were in New York City, I think.”
“Oh.”
“It was still horrible,” she said.
“Yeah,” I said.
“One of these dragons at that secret agency you work for got a mate?” said Celeste. “That why you’re asking me this?”
“I don’t work for a secret agency,” I said.
“Sure, you don’t,” she said. “You do work with dragons, though, don’t you?”
“Maybe,” I said, slugging down the rest of my Corona.
* * *
It didn’t take long for me to get drunk enough to spill the entire story to Celeste, who was sympathetic, but not encouraging. She told me to cut ties with Naelen before it got any more serious than it was and said that if I stayed with him, I was only setting myself up for disappointment.
By two o’clock, I’d had enough. A few other customers had shown up by that time and Celeste was too busy to talk. I was feeling woozy.
I eased myself off the barstool I’d been sitting on and held onto the bar for a few seconds once I was on my feet. I wanted to make sure I was steady. I was fine. I’d had too much to drink, but it hadn’t been too bad. I was still all right.
Having paid for each drink as I went, there was no settling up I needed to do, so I headed for the door out.
I was two feet away when the door swung open and two drakes came in. One had orange scales in a smattering over his nose like freckles and an orange mohawk. I couldn’t tell whether it was dyed or natural. The other had normal human skin and features, but he was a light shade of green, and he had reptilian eyes.
I sidestepped to avoid running into them.
They took me in, head to toe, both of them raking their gazes over me in a way I didn’t like.
I stuck out my chin. “What are you staring at?”
One snickered. “Not much.”
“Yeah?” I said. “Then how about you keep your eyes to yourself from here on out?” I shoved past both of them, not caring whether I brushed into them and knocked them over at this point.
But I never made it through the door, because Green Skin grabbed my arm and forced me to stumble.
I recovered as quick as I could. I swung around, and with the arm he wasn’t holding, planted my open palm in his chest. I shoved.
He let go.
I went out the door, letting it slam behind me. My heart was racing. I was a little drunk, and I didn’t have my bow and arrows on me. Usually, I brought them everywhere, but I hadn’t been thinking when I left the house this morning. I wanted to kick myself. I’d learned this lesson too many times to count. I was going to get a tattoo on the back of my left hand that read, Bring your bow and arrows.
But I wasn’t weaponless.
I knelt down and took a knife out of the sheath at my ankle. It wasn’t really long enough to be considered a sword, but it was the kind of thing that could decapitate a vampire if I needed it to.
Probably, I was being too cautious, because the door was still firmly shut and no one had come after me, but I felt more comfortable with the knife in my hand. And just to be doubly sure that I’d be okay, I swallowed some dice and I felt it searing through my body. Before the high could take hold, I did a little magic, dissipating it.
Holding onto the knife, I started away from Happy Harry’s. I wondered if I should call a cab and waste money on the fare or just go to the bus stop and wait for the next bus. I was pretty sure that at this time of the day, buses came through pretty steady, but I wasn’t positive, because I usually had to catch the night bus from Happy Harry’s, and it only came on the hour, which often meant I was waiting around at night in the cold for the damned thing.
Considering how crappy everything was with Naelen these days, I should probably save every bit of money that I could. So, I opted for the bus. I’d have to cross the road. That would mean going down to the light, because traffic was horrendous right now. It was high season in Sea City, and Atlantic Avenue, was glutted with cars going to and from the beaches.
The door behind me opened.
I turned.
The two drakes I’d seen were coming out again.
“Look,” said Green Skin. “Who do you think you are, bitch?”
“I’m Clarke Gannon,” I said. “The dragon slayer. You got a problem with that?”
“We got a problem with you,” said Orange Mohawk. “We don’t know what it is you think you’re doing, sashaying your stuff all over the bar and then acting all offended if someone tries to give you a compliment.”
I snorted. “Compliment? There was a compliment given? I must have missed that.”
“Look, girly,” said Green Skin. “I think you owe us an apology.”
“And I think that’s going to happen when hell freezes over,” I said. “Get out of my face.”
Green Skin held up a hand and used magic to shove me backward.
I landed on my ass on the pavement. I bared my teeth at him, vaulted to my feet, and raised my knife over my head.
He hadn’t seen the blade before. He’d seen what he’d wanted to see, and he thought I was easy prey. He was going to be proved wrong. Now, he raised his eyes in surprise.
I rushed him.
But Orange Mohawk gestured, and the knife flew out of my hands, tumbling through the air, end over end, to the drake’s grasp. He’d used magic to take my weapon.
I let out a cry of frustration, reaching into my shirt to smash the monocle against my skin. Immediately, both drakes were covered with strands and strands of woven magic. I could undo their magic. I could go into their brains and take apart the strands that made them alive. I could kill them both by dismantling them.
I leaped onto Green Skin and ripped at his threads. I took apart all his magic, and I started to pull out the threads that would kill him.
But I saw movement out of the periphery of my eye. Orange Mohawk was coming at me, brandishing my knife. I turned to face the onslaught, throwing out my own magic to halt him in his tracks.
He stopped, but he sent the knife hurtling through the air, straight at my head.
CHAPTER FIVE
The knife was held up and propelled by strands of magic that wove and unwove themselves. I grabbed a dangling thread and tugged. The whole thing unraveled. The knife clattered to the ground, useless.
Orange Mohawk drew his brows together. “How’d you…?”
I pointed at him. “You want some more of this?”
“Man,” said Green Skin weakly from the ground, “let’s just go get a beer.”
Orange Mohawk backed up, nodding. “Uh, yeah. We’re sorry.”
I swept the knife up and pointed it at them. “Don’t go get a beer. Don’t come back to this bar. If I see you again, I will kill you.”
Green Skin scrambled to his feet. “Let’s not get crazy, lady.”
“Go,” I said.
They went.
After that, I decided to call a cab anyway. I wasn’t sitting around and waiting at the bus station. My mood, which hadn’t been great to begin with, had now gone very south.
But when I got home, I found the door to my apartment unlocked. I knew I hadn’t left it unlocked, because I would never do that. I always locked my door. It was a habit. I’d locked myself out of places before because I was so used to doing it.
I got my knife out again. I opened the door slowly and I eased my way inside, expecting someone to jump out at me at any moment. When they did, I was going to punch the knife into that person’s gut.
But nothing happened.
My living room looked exactly the way I had left it. It was mostly clean, except the floor could stand to be vacuumed and I’d left a bath towel draped over my couch. Nothing seemed out of place.
My apartment had a combination living and dining room, and I didn’t actually use the dining room as a dining room, considering I had no dining room table. So, I looked across my couch and chair to the empty area that I used for bookshelves. There was nothing out of place there either.
Maybe I had left my stupid door unlocked. Maybe I was being paranoid.
Or maybe Cunningham was in my damned apartment.
We didn’t know what had happened to him, after all. He’d run off and left us in a burning house. He might think he actually killed us, but he was probably too smart for that. And it wouldn’t be hard for someone like him to find out where I lived. He had all those compulsion powers that worked on everyone.
I had the monocle, though, so if he tried anything, I would dismantle all his magic and cut off his head. I knew that Naelen would probably be pissed at me for taking away his revenge, but I figured dead Cunningham was the ultimate goal, so it didn’t matter.
I started for my bedroom. It was off the living room, and I had a bathroom off the bedroom.
Pushing open the door, I could see my bed and my bookshelf and the gray carpet that had come standard in the place.
The toilet flushed.
I jumped. I thrust the knife in front of me, holding the handle with both hands. God, where the hell were my bow and arrows? There. Across the bedroom in the corner. Should I make a break for them, or should I just rely on the mono—
Naelen came out of the bathroom into the bedroom. “Clarke. Hey. I thought I heard you come in.” He raised his eyebrows. “What’s with the knife?”
I dropped my arms and then knelt down to tuck the knife back into the sheath at my boot. “You nearly gave me a heart attack.”
“I can see that.”
I straightened. “What are you doing here?”
“I looked all over for you,” he said. “Finally, I came here to wait for you.”
“All over, huh?”
“Yes, everywhere I could think of,” he said.
“And you didn’t check Happy Harry’s?” I said. “Because that’s where I was. And if you had half a brain in your skull, you would have known that was the only place I would go.”
He folded his arms over his chest. “You don’t have to be rude about it.”
I sighed and went back into the living room. I threw myself down on the couch next to the bath towel. I pushed the towel onto the floor. Great. Now the spot where the towel had been was a wet spot on my couch. I sighed again. “Just admit it. You didn’t come after me. You went after Juliet. You can’t resist her.”
He appeared in the doorway between my bedroom and the living room. “I can resist her. Sure, it’s fucking hell, but I’m doing it. You’re not very appreciative, though.”
“Oh, well excuse me,” I said. “I’m sorry I can’t be more supportive of the fact you’re actively trying not to sleep with another woman.”
He crossed to me and sat down next to me on the couch. “You have no idea how hard this is for me, do you?”
“If it’s so hard to resist her, maybe you shouldn’t,” I said. “Maybe you two should just go off and get married and move into a nice, big dragon mansion and birth dragon brats and stop torturing me.”
“Are you serious?”
I was quiet.
He leaned forward, rested his elbows on his knees, and rested his face in his hands. “You keep saying things like that. You keep pushing me toward her. Why is that?”
“I’m not pushing you anywhere. It’s where you want to be.”
“I…” He raised his face to look at me. “If you’re trying to tell me that you want to break up with me, then just be straight with me.”
“I’m not—what?” I glared at him. “Are you trying to break up with me?”
“No,” he said. “More than anything, I want to be with you, just like I keep saying.”
“So, then, why would you say that?”
“Maybe you want a way out,” he said. “I know that it wasn’t exactly love at first sight with you and me. I mean, I was drawn to you right away, but you hated my guts. If you’ve realized that you don’t really want to be with me, then tell me.”
“Naelen.” I shook my head at him. “That’s not fair. You know that I was drawn to you from the beginning too.”
“But are you still drawn to me? You haven’t so much as touched me in days,” he said. “And you won’t let me touch you either.”
“I’m still reeling,” I said.
“When Logan was with us, you and I were making love every other day. Now, it’s been nearly a week.”
“Well, heaven forbid we don’t have sex.”
“I’m only saying, Clarke, that it’s harder and harder to resist something that Juliet is practically begging me for when I’m not experiencing anything to offset it.”
I leaped up off the couch. “Oh, no. You do not get to guilt me into sleeping with you. That is manipulative and awful.”
