Greed and Other Dangers

by TJ Nichols

  The male flew over the flames and the sparks kissed Edra’s bare skin, but all he could do was hiss and hope. They weren’t high enough, and the male was struggling. He was too wounded and dehydrated. Then the male tilted and wheeled around.

  Selkie shit, was he returning to the nest?

  Then Edra saw a clearing with three fire trucks. They were protecting a house. Water was being sprayed on the roof and on the flames that were creeping closer. The dragon hadn’t taken them that far from the fire. They were still in it.

  The male was going down, aiming straight for a pool that was coated in a layer of ash. Edra sucked in a breath as they hit the water. The egg moved against him, and then the dragon clambered out of the pool. Edra’s grip was slippery, but he held on until the dragon came to a stop by the hose. The men on the hose were no longer paying attention to the water or the fire. One dropped the hose and ran, and the other struggled to maintain control, his gaze on the dragon as though it were about to eat him. The male put his claw over the hose and started to drink from the end like a dog in a park.

  Edra eased his grip on the dragon’s leg and stepped back, still clutching the egg. The male, without even looking, stretched out a wing and scooped Edra closer. This last egg wasn’t leaving the male’s sight.

  There were several firemen watching now, and one brave one still held the hose that the dragon was drinking from.

  “Can I get some water?” Was he even visible? It was easier to be visible when hot, but in human form, he had problems controlling his visibility when he was stressed. He glanced at his skin, and it was more red than silver. He was burned.

  “The dragon.” One of the men pointed.

  “Was trapped in the fire. I got him and the egg out. Can I get a drink?” Or did he have to drink from the hose like the dragon? Drool dripped on the ground and water that missed the dragon’s mouth splashed on the grass. Even with the dragon’s foot on the hose, there was too much water for Edra to drink.

  “Will the mama be pissed if we come close?”

  “This is the father.”

  “How does that work?”

  Edra was about two heartbeats from shifting and roaring at them—at least then his skin wouldn’t feel a size too tight—but he didn’t have the energy. “I’m Knight Tendric with Mytho Servo, and you’re very lucky I saved the dragon and his egg. So can I get some water or do I need to call up my people?”

  Not that his people would be able to do much. Mythological Services helped mythos integrate. His job was to liaise with the cops, or more specifically, with Jordan.

  A couple of men were ordered forward with bottles of water and a blanket. Why he needed a blanket in the middle of a bush fire, Edra wasn’t sure. The man draped it over Edra’s shoulders, but his eyes were on the bus-sized dragon still lapping at the water.

  The male wasn’t flying anywhere. He would be too full.

  Edra shifted the egg so he could drink the opened bottle of water, and when that was empty, he took the second one and drank that too. His mouth still tasted like ash, but he felt less like jerky and more like a roast.

  “We’ve got to move out of here. The fire’s turning. Get that up in the air,” the man in charge said, as though Edra had some kind of control over the dragon.

  “He’s too injured to fly any farther.” If the fire was turning, there wasn’t time to explain dragon digestion to a human. But it was mostly the truth. The cuts on the dragon’s side had ripped open and were bleeding. His scales were dull and some had flaked off. He was in poor condition. When was the last time Edra had seen him? Not for a while, he realized. He’d only seen the female, and she’d told him the male was hunting. Clearly he’d been nesting and the eggs were closer to hatching than he’d first thought. Though trying to ask a dragon when the eggs were laid was like trying to teach a manticore to cook—the manticore would get frustrated and eat you first.

  The fireman looked at him, and Edra stared back.

  “Then how the fuck do we move it?”

  Edra glanced up at the dragon and then back at the three fire trucks. He didn’t want to do any more flying. He was burned and tired and could do with a sit down and a meal, but before he did any of that, he had the egg to deliver to the new nest. “How much weight can your trucks carry?”

  Chapter 2

  THE WOMAN was crying and yelling at Jordan as though he were responsible for the dragon ripping up trees and digging a hole in the Presidio near the satyr temple. He glanced at the dragon, who was far too intent on whatever it was making, then back at the woman.

  “That monster ate my Bella! Are you just going to stand there?” She went to shove him.

  Jordan caught her hands. “Ma’am, I understand you’re upset, but assaulting an officer won’t change anything.” The only reason he was there was because a dragon had illegally flown over the city and landed in the park. Given that the hills where they lived were burning, he didn’t blame the dragon at all. But he was supposed to do something about it. He just wasn’t sure issuing a flying ticket to a dragon would be all that effective.

  The satyrs had come down and were at their temple. They’d brought food for the dragon, though even they had left the cow carcass at a safe distance.

  The woman heaved in a breath. “It belongs in a zoo.”

  Possibly. Dragons were endangered, according to Mythological Services, but not according to any other organization. No one knew quite what to do with the mythos. Which ones were animals and which ones were human was still being debated. The academy and his degree hadn’t prepared him for any of this stuff.

  “Ma’am, it’s a wild animal, and we’re doing our best to make sure it’s controlled.” And protected. There was already a crowd taking photos of the dragon. They were going to have to call more crowd control to protect the dragon from the people and the people from the dragon.

  “That won’t bring back Bella.” She shook the leash.

  Maybe Bella should’ve been on the leash. If the dragon had done a proper job of it, the woman wouldn’t be here whining at him either. He choked back the thought. If a dragon, even a lesser dragon, ate his cat, he’d be pretty dark too. “Can I get you to make a formal statement to one of the officers?” He led her toward a uniformed cop.

  He was sure the city would make some kind of compensation, but he wasn’t going to offer. It wasn’t his place.

  Jordan surveyed the park. The dragon settled in its hole, surrounded by ripped-up trees. The slightly crooked satyr temple, with its rather phallic columns and very female inspired firepit—not that he was well acquainted with female anatomy—was about thirty yards from the nest.

  It was chaos in the park, and he had a pile of burglaries on his desk that he needed to look into. Some of them were already over six months old. They’d been buried because the victims were mytho and no one cared. As the only inspector in the newly formed mytho branch of the SID, anything mytho related landed on his desk.

  He ran his fingers through his hair. He didn’t have enough hours in the day.

  He tried Edra’s cell again, but he hadn’t been answering all morning. Where the hell was he? There was a dragon in the city, and Edra could speak to them. Jordan had called Mytho Servo only to be told Edra would deal with the dragon situation when he was available.

  What that meant was anyone’s guess.

  “Kells!” A uniformed officer beckoned from the perimeter, and a gap opened up in the crowd.

  What now? He strolled over, a benign smile fixed to his face, but it froze as he got closer. The mytho creature who had cleared the crowd was a werewolf.

  “That’s Carly Arche from Mytho Servo.” The human officer hooked his thumb at the werewolf, who pulled an expression Jordan hoped was a smile.

  Was he not meant to show his teeth with werewolves? Or was he supposed to avoid eye contact? He couldn’t remember. Fuck. It was definitely polite to let them smell your hand, so he offered his hand, kept his teeth hidden, and avoided direct eye contact just in
case.

  Carly shook his hand with claw-tipped fingers and rough-padded palms like a dog. Then she lifted his hand and gave it a sniff. “Good to finally meet you, Kells. I’ve heard about you from Edra.”

  There was something about the way she said it that made heat creep up Jordan’s neck. Could she smell Edra on him? Had she smelled him on Edra? Would the dragon eat him if he walked over and got in her hole? He didn’t want anyone knowing what he was doing after hours.

  “Come through.” Jordan lifted the tape so Carly could step under.

  “Mytho Servo said you needed someone down here.”

  “Yeah, but I was hoping for Tendric. Can you speak Dragon?”

  “No. Did no one tell you Edra went up to the hills?” Her ears twitched. She was about half a foot taller than him, cinnamon brown, and looked more like an upright talking dog than he should really be thinking. Werewolves, before the collapse, had been able to shift between human and wolf form. Now they were trapped in between. That could’ve been Edra—part dragon, part human. Would Jordan have found him attractive if that had been the case?

  Jordan turned. “Up there?” The sky was gray with smoke, the sun an orange blob that barely broke through. “Why would he be up there?”

  “Because the dragon’s mate is up there. If he dies, she won’t find another, and we need to keep breeding pairs together.”

  “Dragons mate for life,” Jordan said more to himself.

  “All kinds of dragons,” Carly added with an edge to her words.

  Jordan nodded. He wasn’t about to agree or disagree. Anything he said could be used to expose the relationship he shouldn’t be having—that he wasn’t even sure they were having. They barely kissed, because dragons didn’t do that, or at least not until they were serious about the person they were with. The chaste things Edra brushed across his lips didn’t meet Jordan’s definition of a kiss, but to Edra it was something.

  That they spent several nights a week not having sex and not making out was the lesser dragon version of dating. It sucked, but Jordan wanted to be more than a one-night stand, so he was doing this Edra’s way. The only thing that made the rough lust bearable were the nights Edra showed up with Bliss. Now Edra was in the fire risking his life for dragons. If someone had told him ten years ago that this would be his life, he’d have wondered what they were taking.

  He refocused on Carly. “Right, so here you are. The dragon ate a pet dog. The lady is over there giving a statement. It’s also destroyed several trees, and now every man and his dog is down here to gawp. Any ideas?”

  “It is a she and she’s made a nest for her mate.” A whine slipped out of her nose. “This is very bad.”

  Yes, it was, but Carly was referring to something other than the destruction of the park. He was no expert in werewolf expressions, but he’d seen enough kicked dogs growing up to know worry. “What do you mean?”

  “If they have a nest, there should be eggs. That’s why the male didn’t come with her. Dragons won’t leave their eggs.”

  “But Edra is up there.” And Edra wasn’t a greater dragon covered in scales. He was small and silvery and fragile like an overgrown skink with wings.

  “I need to make a call.” She tapped at her cell with black claws and relayed the information to Ardel, the vampire who ran Mytho Servo in San Francisco.

  Edra had gone up into the fire to save the male and the eggs. That wasn’t his job, was it? Had he said something about the dragons being his responsibility before the collapse? Edra clung to tradition when it suited him. He still used his title—Knight.

  Carly put her cell in her pocket. Her suit was cut to fit a body that was neither human nor wolf, and her tail twitched. “They don’t know anything. Edra doesn’t carry a cell when flying.”

  I know nearly slipped out.

  “Why did he go alone?”

  “How many dragons have you seen here?” She tilted her head. “It’s just him.”

  Jordan’s phone buzzed. He opened the link that had been sent to him, along with the words I want a report before the end of the day. He watched footage of a fire truck on the freeway, and then the next one rolled past. There was a dragon on top of it—not a silvery lesser dragon, but a rather large green dragon. He hit replay and showed Carly.

  “It looks like he rescued the dragon.”

  There was no sign of Edra, but he could be in the truck. Jordan shut down the panic that wanted to bubble up. “Yeah. But they can’t stay here. How long do dragons nest for? Are we talking weeks or months? They aren’t supposed to be in the city.”

  “You want to tell her that you’re moving her nest?” The dragon was out of the hole and sniffing the air.

  “Can Tendric?”

  She gave a yip that he supposed was a laugh. “I don’t think he wants to be dragon food either.”

  The dragon took a few steps and launched into the air. It didn’t seem possible that something as large as a bus could get airborne so fast. Edra was a wisp of a dragon compared to the greater dragons.

  He’d only seen him as a dragon once and had never seen him fly.

  A roar rent the air and was answered. Then the female swooped slowly over the crowd, gave a burp of fire, and landed in her hole. She turned around a few times, much like a cat, but while she was sitting, she didn’t look relaxed. There was a twitchiness about her that Jordan didn’t like.

  “I think we need to move the people back,” he said more to himself than anyone. He wanted to be on the other side of the hastily strung tape. They’d need a proper barricade to turn this place into a no-go zone. Did dragons actually eat people?

  “Yes. Though I doubt they’ll listen to me.”

  The flit of a siren sounded, and as the truck got closer and tried to get through the crowd, the dragon roared again.

  “Clear a path for the truck. Get away from the barrier,” Jordan yelled, and the officers relayed the orders.

  He hadn’t been trained to deal with dragon-related emergencies, but he could crowd control. Every cop in San Francisco was an expert in that, and that’s all this was. But that was much easier to believe before the overloaded fire truck came into view. The dragon was perched on top, claws digging into the metal.

  Where was Edra? He was trained in all things dragon, and he was a part-time dragon himself. It was too easy to forget that when Edra passed for human—a far too attractive human.

  The truck came through the tape and across the lawn. Officers were quick to fill the gap before people could push through. Did those watchers want to become dinner?

  When the truck stopped, the dragon gingerly climbed off. It was then that Jordan saw the injuries. The end of his tail was missing, and there were great scratches down his side. They were going to need a vet of some kind. Reptile or mammal?

  A dark-haired man wrapped in a blanket got out of the truck, and Jordan let out a sigh of relief. But the male dragon didn’t head for the nest. He was waiting. Edra looked up from what he was carrying. His gaze fixed on Jordan and he gave a tilt of his chin, but the firefighters were not so subtle.

  “Inspector Kells? The Mytho Servo guy wants to see you,” the soot-stained fireman said as he pointed at Edra, just in case Jordan couldn’t work out who needed to see him.

  As much as he wanted to see Edra, there was a dragon standing less than six feet away.

  “Dragons eat werewolves. You’re on your own,” Carly said.

  “Do they eat humans?”

  “You tell me.”

  Jordan was pretty sure the lip curl and tongue loll was a smirk. The way she said it, as though she knew… he couldn’t think about it at the moment. Everyone was waiting, so he had to roll up and light every bit of courage he had left and hope he didn’t choke on the smoke. He made his way over.

  Edra was smudged with ash and didn’t look so good. His face appeared sunburned, and there was a hollowness around his eyes. Was he injured?

  “Can you come closer?” Edra said. “He won’t bite.”

/>   The dragon stared at Jordan intently and then made a few clicks and whistles that Edra answered.

  The dragon narrowed its eyes. Cat smile or angry dragon face? What had Edra just said? Jordan came in closer until he was able to smell the dragon’s ripe breath.

  “Fix the blanket. I don’t want to get arrested for public nudity.” Edra forced a smile and said something to the dragon. Those clicks and whistles were Edra talking Dragon. They were sounds a human couldn’t make.

  Jordan stepped in to adjust the blanket.

  Edra had the blanket wrapped tightly around him, and he could’ve fixed it himself. But then he shifted his arm to reveal a shiny black rock. “I need superglue before I put this down, and until I put it down, the dragon male won’t let me get more than a few feet from him. I also want pants and water and food.”

  “What are you holding?” And why was Edra a hostage?

  “An egg. Just get the things I asked for.”

  “We don’t negotiate with hostage takers.”

  “I’m not a hostage. I’m helping to save their baby.”

  Shit, the egg was the baby. Of course.

  The dragon huffed over Edra’s shoulder and whistled, his nostrils flapping.

  Jordan touched Edra’s shoulder. “Are you all right?”

  “Can we do this later? This isn’t getting any lighter. I have blisters on my ass and two cranky dragons.”

  Jordan smiled. “You’re fine then. Just another day at the office.”

  Edra clicked, and Jordan was sure the dragon laughed. The joke was him.

  Jordan stalked toward Carly and the uniformed officer hanging around near her. He pointed at the officer. “You’re going with Arche from Mytho Servo to get pants for Tendric and water and food and superglue. You have fifteen minutes.”

  They both looked as though they were about to argue.

  “We have a situation. You can bitch about me on your way to get what I asked.” He doubted they’d talk to each other.