Greed and Other Dangers

by TJ Nichols

  Edra put the chocolate on the bench and sniffed the wine in Jordan’s glass.

  “Did you want some?”

  “Not today. I don’t think I can deal with the headache tomorrow.”

  “Right.” One glass was enough to give Edra a hangover. “Water? Or….” He opened up the pantry. “I bought cocoa for hot chocolate.”

  Edra was always drinking it. His eyes widened and so did his smile. “Perfect.”

  Jordan poured the milk and put it in the microwave to boil—Edra liked his hot chocolate extra hot and extra chocolaty. “No longer burned from this morning?”

  “Mostly healed. I couldn’t carry the egg as a dragon, and I’m not as fireproof like this.”

  “And the egg is fixed?”

  Edra inclined his head. “We’ll find out when it hatches. If it hatches.”

  The microwave beeped, and Jordan made the hot chocolate.

  “One more, please.”

  Jordan dropped another spoonful of cocoa into the cup and stirred, the handle of the cup too hot in his hand. When he passed it over, Edra took a sip without even checking the temperature. He didn’t flinch from the heat as he cradled the cup in his hands either. He might not be fireproof, but he was heatproof.

  “Perfect.” And Edra damn near purred, which made Jordan’s heart double in size. That wasn’t the correct reaction to have for a colleague, but they weren’t that, not anymore. “How was the rest of your day?”

  Something slightly better than hellish. But Edra didn’t need to know about the ribbing from the other inspectors as they implied he was a glorified dogcatcher for dealing with the mytho cases. “Fine. The cyber guys are looking into the eggs at their end. They know it’s not definite and it’s not something we want getting out. I do have a list of mytho objects that are up for sale. I’m going through them to see if they match any of the things that have been reported stolen.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I have a pile of cases no one followed up on. Thefts from mythos. There’s probably more that haven’t been reported?” Mythos didn’t trust the cops, and Jordan didn’t blame them.

  “Yeah, I’m guessing you don’t mean stolen shoes or wallets.”

  “Strings of teeth, mortar and pestle, a few knives. An ax. If it were regular stuff, I’d expect them to be sold on the street.”

  Edra nodded. “Mythos are still getting mugged, but the people doing that are just desperate for cash. Who’d try and take money from an ogre? The kids are leaving Vlash alone, and it’s been nearly a whole month.” Edra lifted his cup in salute.

  Jordan lifted his glass. That had been an unpleasant case, mostly because the parents of the teens doing the shoplifting didn’t see anything wrong with harassing a mytho shopkeeper. They wanted the charges dropped, but that wasn’t going to happen. One of the kids was facing assault charges for stabbing an ogre teen. There was enough video evidence that the kid wouldn’t be able to wriggle out of that one. At least Jordan hoped so. He’d seen enough to know most never got to trial, but that was before he was working on the mytho cases and making sure there was enough to get the case over the line. Dot every i, cross every t—everything he did had to be perfect.

  “I’ll get the pasta on. Can you have a look at the photos? They’re on the coffee table.”

  Edra sat on the sofa, still holding the cup as though it held cold milk. He spread out the photos and studied them, his head tilted at an unnatural angle for a human.

  After dumping a whole packet of spaghetti into the boiling water, Jordan joined him. He really didn’t know how much Edra would eat, but pasta was cheap and it was fine to reheat the next day.

  “This is an ogre mortar and pestle. You can tell from the carving on the outside. It’ll be big.” He cupped his hands as though he were holding a very large basketball. “They use it for mixing up medicines.” He shot a glance at Jordan. “And Bliss.”

  “So it has magical properties?”

  “Is that what the sellers are claiming?”

  Jordan nodded. “All of these are meant to be magical mytho artifacts from the collapse.”

  “If we were really magical, don’t you think we would’ve taken over and fixed this place up?” Edra said dryly.

  “You can shape shift. That’s pretty magical.”

  “It’s not magic, Jordan. It’s just what I am. No different to you having brown eyes.”

  “But Bliss has magic.”

  Edra sipped his drink. “Yes, some. And the Strega have magic. There are traces of it around, though no one knows if it will fade or strengthen. I doubt very much any of these things have the properties they’re claiming.”

  “Even the teeth?”

  “The only thing that will get you is a pissed-off satyr on your doorstep. I can fly, and I wouldn’t take a satyr’s collection of teeth.”

  “So there are no dragon teeth on the string?”

  “Why would a satyr kill a dragon? They’re battle trophies, not… what do you call it? Big-game hunting trophies?”

  Jordan stared at his wine. Texas was in the news again for all the wrong reasons after a hunter killed a manticore and posted pictures online. Of course people were defending the hunter, saying there were too many and they were dangerous, but for the most part, the creatures shunned areas where humans lived and kept to themselves.

  Edra spread out a few more of the photos and stopped at the various knives and swords. He picked up one and stared at it, his lips thinning.

  Jordan sat up a little straighter. “What?”

  “That’s my sword. I lost it during the collapse. I didn’t think it came through.” He put the picture on the table and stabbed it with his finger. “I want it back. How do I buy it?”

  Jordan looked at the photo. “They want a quarter of a mil.”

  “Oh.” Edra blinked. “So someone else will buy it, and it will be gone.” He slumped.

  “We’re tracking this stuff. I can make sure that this gets flagged.”

  “That was given to me when I swore to protect the dragons and my town. It was forged with dragon fire, hammered by ogres, and blessed by a Strega. It’s mine. It shouldn’t be for sale.”

  That actually sounded pretty magical, but Jordan was smart enough not to say that. “We’ll do what we can. Not that you can carry it around.”

  “Yeah I know. But you can wear a gun.”

  “I’m a cop.”

  “So was I.” He finished his hot chocolate and licked the bottom of the cup with his long blue tongue.

  Jordan watched him. While he knew Edra wasn’t human, it was still jarring to see the tells that he was mytho. “How did you lose it? Weren’t you wearing it?”

  The collapse was one of those things that had been researched and talked about and was still probably studied in some circles, but everything Jordan had read or seen on the numerous documentaries had focused on what had happened here, not there.

  Edra put down the cup and shook his head. He closed his eyes as though the thoughts hurt. “I wasn’t wearing it. The ground was bucking and tearing. Again. Sinkholes had been opening up for over a year. The Oracle—the most senior Strega—had warned that the end was coming. It was one of those warnings everyone thought to be allegorical, not literal. Who actually thinks the world will end? When the tears in the ground formed, I stripped and took to the air to see what was going on. The dragons were already up, but there were no dangers we could fight. I circled wide to see how far the damage went, but the earth, the sea, everything was moving. Then there was no air, and I fell. I woke up here, naked, to more shaking and fires and cars and….” He stared at his hands. “I stole some clothes and hid with the dragons.”

  “You were never interned.”

  “You checked my record.”

  “Had to, since you’re working with SFPD.”

  “I told the officials that I lived with the dragons during that time. But I pass. I can walk the streets and not have people spit or cross the road. There are mythos who ha
te me for that and who hate that I’m working with the cops… with you.”

  “That sentiment runs on both sides.” Jordan finished his wine and stood. If the pasta was left much longer, it would disintegrate. He stirred it and tasted it to be sure it was still edible. Then he drained the water. “Don’t go after the sword yourself, okay? We don’t even know where it is, and if you start sniffing around, it could be moved and vanish.”

  Edra didn’t answer, so Jordan glanced over. He was still staring at the pictures.

  Was it really his sword, or just one that looked like it? Whole buildings had arrived in the collapse. It was possible that everyday objects had also fallen through, which would make looking for a few stolen items that much harder.

  “I’ve seen this before.” Edra held up a picture of a mirror.

  “Before or after?”

  Edra gave him a glare that would’ve liquified someone who hadn’t seen him naked. “After.”

  The mirror wasn’t anything special. It wasn’t gold or scattered with precious stones. Most of the mytho items looked rather plain—that was one way to tell a fake from the real thing. The frame was simple silver knotwork, and the mirror was also silver and perfectly round.

  “A vampire reported it missing two months ago.”

  “Brave of a thief to walk into a vampires’ nest.” Edra picked up the photo and put it on the dining table. “I didn’t see it in the nest.”

  “You’ve been in to a nest?”

  “Of course. Who else is going to make sure the bride fight doesn’t turn deadly?”

  Jordan reached into the cupboard for plates. He wanted to ask about the bride fight, but that wasn’t part of what he needed to know… at least not yet. And he might be able to look that up on the Mythological Services website, where they tried to educate humans about the different types of mythos. Scientists were still discovering new plants and small animals that had come through. “Why would a vampire have a mirror?”

  Vampires looked like apples that had been left in the sun too long. Their faces were craggy and dull, but they had hair that belonged in a shampoo commercial.

  “Because once upon a time, vampires were as beautiful as elves. Do you know how many killed themselves after the collapse because of the way they looked? It’s the reason so many became heroin addicts. The older they were, the more drastic the change. They hate elves even more now. Because the only thing elves lost was their magic.”

  Jordan dished up the spaghetti. He’d put two human amounts on the plates. “How much do you want?”

  “I can go back?”

  “Yeah… if you don’t, I’ll be eating it forever.” He liked spaghetti but not that much.

  “Elves lost their magic but kept their looks. Vampires lost their looks….” He put the plates down, giving Edra the slightly bigger one. “They didn’t lose their magic, did they?”

  “I think you have a different idea of what magic is than I do. They still drink blood, they’re still fast, and they remember things for centuries. They aren’t immortal, though. Can they create things out of nothing, cast spells and the like? No. Can they read thoughts and persuade you to do things? Yes. But that’s not magic.”

  “Elves can do that too.” He’d almost made an unbreakable vow to an elvish shopkeeper he was helping.

  Edra nodded. “Of course they can. They were once the same people. One started drinking blood to live longer. The other studied magic and learned many wondrous things. The elves could heal even the most terrible wounds. They could control the elements, so much so that, when the ground first started to shake, we thought the elves and vampires were fighting again.”

  Edra talked as though it were all common knowledge. Jordan twirled some pasta around his fork. Edra did the same, but it was his tongue that dragged the strands off. When he ate in public, how hard did he have to try to eat normally, like a human?

  “What magic do vampires have left?”

  Edra swallowed the bite without even chewing. “I can’t discuss that.”

  “Because everyone thinks that magic is gone.”

  “It’s not gone. But plenty of humans thought dragons were magic or that shapeshifters were magic. It’s not magic, just what you call science.”

  And no mytho was keen to be studied. Human scientists had done some tests when the mythos had first arrived and the government had set up the internment camps. Jordan took part in the student protests until he realized that getting arrested would prevent him from getting into the SFPD.

  Then things had settled down. The mythos were released, and he got into the academy. He thought things were fine until he started seeing the truth when he was on patrol. But what rookie was going to stand up and say something?

  Even now he was walking a high wire without a harness. One misstep and his career was gone, and mytho sentiment changed as quickly as the weather.

  “And the mirror?” If that was stolen from a nest here and Edra had seen it, then it was probably still in San Francisco.

  “I don’t know if it still works. But these mirrors aren’t just mirrors. They don’t reflect, they reveal.”

  “Reveal what?”

  “The truth.”

  “Are you joking?” Sometimes it was hard to tell if Edra was serious. “How can a mirror reveal the truth? And what’s the catch?”

  Edra grinned and ate another mouthful of spaghetti. He chewed slowly, even though he didn’t need to. He was stalling, the bastard. “Why would there be a catch?”

  Because there was always a catch when it came to mythos. “Why aren’t the vampires making a fortune off their mirror of truth?”

  “Because it was stolen?” He got up and helped himself to another plate of pasta and sauce and topped it off with more cheese than could be good for his arteries. Yet Edra was all lean muscle, as though his body burned up the food as soon as he ate it. Jordan would be lying if he wasn’t just a little envious.

  “Come on, give me something. Is it dangerous?”

  “In the wrong hands, yes.”

  This was getting him nowhere. “How do you know it was stolen from here?”

  “Because the knotwork around the edge is different for each town. This is the knotwork of my city….”

  “Your city?” Jordan smiled and sipped his wine. He was tempted to go for a third glass, but letting his guard down further would be a bad idea. “How does that tie into vampires?”

  Edra looked at his plate. “The vampires ruled and put the knotwork on their things.”

  Sinner stuck her head out, saw Edra, and hissed, her fur all afluff. Edra’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t hiss back… this time.

  “You two are going to have to get along.”

  Edra tilted his head, his gaze on Sinner. “Have you heard of bog cats?”

  “No… do I want to?”

  “They wait for unfortunate animals and people to become stuck in the bog, and then they start eating them while alive. They’re about three times the size of her, and they hunt in packs. I bet she’s just waiting for an excuse to eat your face.”

  “Good thing I keep her well fed.” Though next time she licked his skin, he’d be wondering if she was determining if he was delicious or not. “Did you not have pets growing up?”

  “No one had animal pets in Tariko. It wasn’t the done thing to trap an animal for your amusement. But the wealthy sometimes kept pets for sex or entertainment.”

  “Slaves?”

  “No, pets. It was a very enviable position.”

  “Sinner was dying. I saved her.” And most of the time, she acted as though he should be grateful she was clawing up his sofa.

  “You don’t have to explain to me. I get it. Humans are different and have weird habits. You think they’re normal, because that’s what you’re used to.” He stood and ruffled Jordan’s hair as he walked past. “Did you want more?”

  “No.” He turned to watch Edra take another serving. “Do you eat like this every night?”

  Edra froze,
ladle in hand.

  “Have more. I wasn’t….” Jordan knew he should’ve just kept quiet.

  “Depends on how much flying and shifting I’ve done. Shifting burns up energy. You know how a lot of werewolves are tubby?” Jordan nodded. “They haven’t cut what they eat now that they can’t shift.” Edra sat down. “There’s still some left.”

  “I can’t eat like you.” Though Jordan wished he could eat whatever he wanted and not worry he’d end up looking like a donut-loving cop cliché. “I’ll clean up. Did you want to watch a movie?”

  Edra lifted his eyebrows.

  “Just a movie.” He really wanted it to be more than a movie. There was one serving of spaghetti left, so he plated it and put it in the fridge. Better than a week’s worth. He glanced at Edra. “How do you know? Or is it a time thing?”

  “Know what?” Edra was staring at the photo of the mirror again, as though he could force a memory.

  Jordan filled the sink so he could wash the plates and pot. “When it’s right… safe to do more than just watch a movie and pretend that’s enough?”

  Edra looked over, and a smile danced over his lips. “How do you know when it’s right?”

  “I don’t. I know when it’s wrong—usually too late to save myself.” Did anyone ever really know if a relationship was right and worth fighting for? “And what does it mean if….” He waved his hand between them. He wanted Edra, but Edra was following lesser dragon dating rules. When they had sex, they’d end up mates. There was nothing on the mytho website about that, no warnings or rules to explain what would happen to him or what that meant.

  With his tongue, Edra licked off some sauce that had flicked onto his cheek. “I don’t know exactly. You’re human, so it’s different, but I know when something goes past quick lust. I can feel it.” He touched just beneath his sternum.

  “That could be too much pasta.”

  Edra smiled. He brought his plate over. “It could be, but it’s not.” He brushed Jordan’s lower back with his hand. “I could’ve quite happily slid into your bed and not thought about tomorrow, but I liked you too much for that.” He kissed the back of Jordan’s neck. “I wanted more. It felt like there could be more.”