Greed and Other Dangers

by TJ Nichols

  “I’m sure you heard the same stories I did in the early years.”

  “Skery’s mixed up in something big. I think it ties into a case I worked earlier in the year. I need to talk to him.”

  “He’s just a thief in love with a mermaid. I want to talk to her.”

  “You don’t like living, do you?”

  Edra leaned over and kissed him. “I like living very much.”

  Jordan cupped his cheek. “I don’t like to say this, but it might be best if you told the dragons the truth.”

  Edra wanted to, but an arrest would make both Mytho Servo and the cops feel smug. “Let’s sleep on it. But not here, because in about thirty minutes, nudity in the temple becomes illegal again, and neither of us needs that scandal.”

  Chapter 23

  EVEN THOUGH Jordan would’ve liked Edra to stay the rest of the night, it made more sense to go home alone and try to get some sleep. For the rest of the world, they still had to pretend there was nothing between them. He didn’t know how that was going to happen when he was already thinking about how best to make room for Edra’s clothes in his wardrobe. And he wasn’t sure he’d be able to sleep; he was too wired, and the jitter in his hands wasn’t from Bliss cravings. He needed a shower because there was dried come on his belly.

  Sinner bitched at him when he entered and then stalked to his bed as though pissed Jordan was late getting home. The empty Bliss bag was still on the kitchen counter where he’d left it only hours before. Was he over the addiction because he’d had sex? He should probably have some of the ginger-and-dead-things tea to be certain.

  He swallowed hard and glanced around his apartment. There was room for them both, and while he wasn’t used to sharing, it would be nice. Edra would be able to leap off the balcony and fly….

  Fuck, what are the neighbors going to say?

  It wasn’t as though he was bringing a werewolf home, but this area of town was pretty much mytho free. But no one would know. Edra looked human until he lifted his shirt.

  Jordan stripped off his T-shirt, tossed it in the laundry hamper, and caught scent of Edra on his clothes. He rubbed his stomach and closed his eyes as he remembered licking their linked fingers.

  It was done. He imagined he could still taste Edra on his tongue. He still wanted him. That craving was there—a need that wouldn’t settle.

  What had he been thinking? Fucking in public like that? Hidden only by a dragon and the notion that what they were doing would be a fine at worst. If the captain knew what he was doing, he’d be gone so fast they’d be delivering his personal effects to his door.

  He had to play it smart.

  Keep it quiet.

  Pretend that his lover… boyfriend? partner? was human.

  So he couldn’t call Edra his mate.

  He turned on the shower and waited for it to warm up. Nerves tangled in his stomach. What the hell had he done? He was married to a dragon, and not one of his friends would believe him if he told them the truth.

  COME DAYLIGHT he got up, even though he wanted to pull the sheets over his head and sleep. He managed to choke down one cup of tea, which he was sure was made of ground bones and bugs. Then washed it down with a cup of coffee. It still felt like he hadn’t slept—which he hadn’t. Two hours didn’t count. That was a nap that had left him feeling gritty and just as strung out.

  He should be feeling better, shouldn’t he?

  When he got to work, no one looked at him weird, as though they somehow knew what he’d done. Christ, it wasn’t like him to treat sex like an open-air event. It wasn’t like him to be an addict either. But he’d nearly blown it all. He nearly let Edra leave.

  His computer hummed to life and emails trickled in. One from Edra made him smile before he’d even read the subject line.

  Problem.

  How could there be a problem? It had been only five hours since he’d last seen him. Had they not done it right? He opened the email, ignoring even the ones flagged for his immediate attention. It was a link to a news article.

  Invisible mytho thief terrorizes the city.

  Oh fuck.

  He scanned the rest of the article, looking for names, but there weren’t any. His spine melted for a moment under the weight of relief.

  Then he reread it all the way to the byline—Carlin Howard.

  Goddamn. He sucked in a breath and stared at the screen.

  The article was mostly fabrication, as far as he knew. Narv had only stolen from mythos, though to be fair, he was missing opportunities that many perps would love. But an invisible mytho? No one aside from the captain knew that information. That hadn’t been made public, because one water dragon stealing from mythos wasn’t a big deal. But an invisible dragon? That was a much bigger problem.

  No one knew about Edra.

  No human except him knew about Edra.

  But the mythos knew. Just when the police were making headway with the mythos, this would set things back. Humans would get twitchy, and the protests would get another day in the sun.

  He leaned back in his seat, willing the article to vanish. They could get it pulled down and maybe take action against Carlin Howard for releasing crucial information about an active investigation—he’d send it on to legal, but the damage would be done.

  There was only one way that information had reached Howard. Someone had told.

  The captain? He was friends with the Campbells. Had someone else read his reports and leaked them to Howard? That could be just about anyone with an anti-mytho ax to grind.

  He rubbed his eyes and wished he’d had more sleep, more sex, more coffee, and not necessarily in that order. He didn’t want to involve internal affairs yet, not without something more. At the moment, they’d probably just laugh, and he was only the mytho guy.

  Inspector Freak. The SFPD Zookeeper.

  Good thing they didn’t know he was also a mytho fucker. What had seemed like a good idea by starlight was giving him the cold sweats by daylight. Though that could be the witch’s tea.

  Chapter 24

  “WHAT IS that?” Jordan took a step toward Edra and the warped mirror.

  Edra turned his body so Jordan couldn’t touch the vampire mirror. He wasn’t sure the magic was still intact, given the metal had partially melted in the fire, but it wasn’t worth the risk. “Evidence that the dragons were telling the truth. Someone lured the male away from the nest with food and the mirror, then stole two eggs. The female came back from hunting and attacked him.”

  “And the fire?”

  “I spoke to the fire department, and they believe it started at the unofficial parking lot closest to the nest.”

  “So Narv drove.”

  “Well, it’s a long way to walk, and he doesn’t have wings, so that would be my guess. This is the mirror that was on Alcatraz. It ties the mermaids to this.”

  “But only you saw it there.”

  “Fingerprint it or something.”

  “How can I do that if humans aren’t supposed to touch it?”

  “You can touch it, but don’t bleed on it and don’t look into it.”

  “Or it will what? Take my soul?” His lips curved in a way that made Edra want to kiss him, even though they were at the precinct. He’d forgotten what those first few days were like—the need to touch and taste his mate. The way Jordan held his gaze, as his tongue darted over his lip, made Edra think he was just as affected.

  “Bare the truth. Many can’t live with that.” He put the mirror on the table, facedown. Writing was inscribed on the back, but he couldn’t read archaic Vampire, which was the same as archaic Elvish—but don’t say that to either of them—and the language of spells. “I’ll need to return this, so do what you need to.”

  “I’ll drop it at Mytho Servo myself.”

  “I’ll meet you at the dragon nest?”

  “I’ll be there.”

  Jordan reached for the mirror, and Edra put his hand over Jordan’s. He didn’t need to, but he wanted to, and he cou
ld. “Don’t be tempted to peek. Vampire mirrors have destroyed whole cities and won them wars.”

  “It’s only the truth.”

  Edra considered him for a moment. “It’s not just the truth. It never is. A vampire will never make a deal without both parties looking in the mirror. It’s a way to see what lies in the heart of your ally and enemy. I hear that these mirrors still show vampires how they used to look.”

  “There can’t be many around.”

  “All vampire families had at least one. How many survived?” Edra shrugged. “This belongs to my boss. It gets returned.”

  “It will.”

  “Warn your people.”

  Jordan nodded. “Have you told the dragons?”

  “Not yet. They don’t understand planning. But I am about to ask for their help in catching him. I can’t lift an unwilling water dragon out of the bay on my own.”

  Jordan looked at him for a moment. “Only a willing one?”

  Edra grinned. Their hands were still touching over the mirror. “Controlled fall, not a lift. There is a difference. I’ll explain over dinner.”

  “I’ll hold you to it.”

  Edra wanted to lean in and kiss him—nothing too great, just a brush of lips—but he didn’t. He drew his hand away, knowing that he’d held it too long.

  Jordan looked away. “Don’t get eaten.”

  That was always a risk, and the dragons were going to be furious. “I’ll do my best.”

  IT HAD taken a side of beef to convince the female to leave her noisy eggs. She wanted to be there, which Edra could understand, but the shells weren’t even cracking. All she had to do was fly down and grab Narv, the one thing Edra couldn’t do. No human would be able to grab him either.

  They flew out over the bay together, but Edra dropped low to locate Narv. He was sunning himself with his mermaid. If they could grab both….

  Edra didn’t land, but mermaids gathered in the water below.

  “Narv Skery, I need to bring you in for questioning about the thefts.”

  Narv sat up. “That’s not how it works. You’re betraying your kind.”

  “And you betrayed yours by stealing dragon eggs.” He wanted to talk to the mermaid, but she wouldn’t be able to understand the clicks of dragons any more than he could understand their words when underwater.

  Narv stood and stepped toward the water. Edra hovered before him, knowing that if he got too close, Narv could drag him under. And Edra was sure he’d used up all of his mermaid luck.

  “Let me pass.”

  “No.” Edra let out a whistle, and the female dragon went from being a speck up high to diving toward him.

  “What is this?”

  “Help.”

  The mermaid slithered toward the water but was stopped by Selena. It was about to get ugly.

  The wind from the female dragon’s wings buffeted Edra. “This water dragon stole your eggs and then returned them.”

  “Liar,” Narv said.

  “I have the vampire mirror you used. The one you took from here.”

  Narv shifted and shimmered. Fuck.

  The female dragon was faster, and her claws wrapped around Narv’s squirming body. Narv shimmered in places but remained partially visible, and blood ran down his leg where a claw had pressed too deep.

  “Talking fish too,” Edra said to the dragon, and she grasped the mermaid and lifted away from the island.

  Edra landed and shifted so he could talk to Selena. “She’ll be brought back.”

  Selena studied him, her pale eyes cold. “She has broken rules, but not all are happy to be cooperating with humans. Our alliance is fragile, knight.”

  He knew that. Not even a vampire with a mirror would make a deal with a mermaid. “Remind your people not to act against other mythos. The theft of young has always been a crime.”

  “The love trials are not.”

  “They aren’t. But don’t take things that can never be replaced.”

  “That’s what makes them valuable.”

  “To humans. What was taken has been sold to humans. That is not your way.” The mermaids in the water had their tails lifted as though he were an enemy in need of poisoning. He shivered and blamed the breeze, not his vulnerable human body.

  Selena smiled, and her pointed teeth made it something less friendly than it otherwise might have been. “Congratulations on your new mate, knight.”

  Then she was gone with a flick of her tail and a lap of water. The others followed, and he was alone on Alcatraz.

  How fast did gossip travel?

  While the fact that he was mated wasn’t something he wanted to keep secret, it wasn’t going to look that great either. His mate was a human cop. But to some degree, his dragony chemistry couldn’t be helped. Not everyone was a suitable mate, and he had no idea how his body determined who would be. He wasn’t about to let scientists work that out either.

  The dragon called to him, and Edra shifted, his stomach rumbling already. The dragon was circling the Presidio when Edra caught up. In her rear claws Narv had gone still and the mermaid was screaming as though she were being murdered—which she wasn’t.

  On the grass, cops waited, and several more had been called in for the occasion. Jordan stood out, tall and blond. It was enough to give his heart a lift as he swooped toward the ground.

  A yell made him roll in the air, and Narv tumbled toward the ground. Edra wouldn’t get there in time, even if he could catch him. They’d both fall, and there’d be nothing controlled about it. The dragon snatched Narv out of the air, and blood burst out of him.

  This wasn’t meant to be torture, but Edra couldn’t step in, not unless he wanted to be on the dragon’s bad side. He’d spent years building up a working relationship, both in Tariko and here.

  The cops were shouting. Some had their guns out—like that would damage a dragon, but it could damage him. He hit the ground at a run and shook off the shift in a rush of heat. Then he stumbled. His legs were still adjusting. “Put your guns down.”

  “Jesus, put some damn clothes on,” one of the cops in uniform yelled.

  Edra glared at him but put his hand over his dick. “You think I have a choice?”

  Jordan handed him a pair of shorts, and his lips were pressed together as though he were trying not to smile. Edra pulled on the shorts, not worrying about who saw his privates. He could smell the burgers in the bag Jordan was holding, and he wanted to eat them all in one bite. Jordan handed them to him. “Thought you might also need this.”

  “Thank you.”

  People gasped, and Edra glanced up at the sky. What was left of Narv was dropping toward the nest. The male stretched out his neck, and Narv was gone. Edra winced, even though he knew Narv had probably died of his injuries before he was eaten.

  “Dammit.” Jordan stalked off, playing the furious cop who’d just lost his suspect. He barked orders, and it looked as though he was just as stunned as everyone else.

  While everyone was distracted, Edra ate a burger—it took him three bites because he couldn’t fit it all in his mouth at once—but he didn’t bother chewing. It didn’t quiet his stomach, and after several quick shifts and flying, he needed calories. He shoved the second burger in and was swallowing as Jordan made his way back over.

  “She needs to put the mermaid down. People are getting twitchy.”

  “She won’t eat the mermaid. Their tails are full of venom—enough to make even a dragon sick.” He licked sauce off his fingers. There were two burgers left, but they’d have to wait.

  “Can you call her down?”

  “Can you get everyone to push back?”

  “The mermaid won’t get legs and run?”

  Edra frowned and shook his head. “I don’t know where you humans get your lore, but you’ve mixed up water dragons with mermaids.” He walked away from the cops and called up to the dragon. “Can we have the talking fish?”

  Behind him someone was asking what the hell he was doing.

&nbs
p; The dragon replied with chirps that would mean nothing to the humans. “No. She is angry and will kill you.”

  “I will be safe. Please don’t drop her,” Edra called out.

  “Is he talking to the dragon?” someone asked.

  “Yeah.” Jordan’s voice. “He’s Knight Tendric, the Mytho Servo Liaison. We’d be fucked without him.” Edra could almost hear the smile on his lips.

  “Wouldn’t be fucked if they hadn’t shown up.”

  “He’s a part-time animal. That’s why he can talk to dragons.”

  Their words carried, though they probably thought he couldn’t hear them. But he could hear better than a human, if not as well as a vampire. He could change form and fly, but they thought they were somehow better. He wanted to turn and call them on their minotaur shit, but he didn’t. Jordan still had to work with those people.

  The dragon came lower. The mermaid started to scream again. He was sure if he were under water, it would be so beautiful he’d be dead. Instead he just wanted to claw his ears off and feed them to the dragons.

  He glanced over his shoulder. The humans had their hands over their ears and some were hunched over or on the ground. Jordan pulled out earplugs, put them in, and crossed his arms. Smart.

  The dragon dropped the mermaid the last yard, and she flopped on her belly like a landed fish. But she shut up as she gasped for air.

  “Start screaming again, and I will let the dragon eat the tasty half of you.” He wasn’t sure which half that was.

  She opened her mouth.

  Edra snarled. “As your knight I advise you to comply with the police questioning.” He lowered his voice. “Why were you selling treasure to humans?”

  She arced her tail up and pointed the poison barb at him. She dragged herself over the grass toward him. “For better treasure.”

  “Who? Were you given a list?”

  She grinned.

  “Narv loved you, and you used him. You had him take dragon eggs.”

  “He was a fool who got caught and wasn’t worthy.”

  “We have to be on the same side. There aren’t enough of us to fight.” Edra resisted the urge to step back. She was still out of striking range, but she was getting far too close. He had no idea how the cops were going to arrest her, but that was their problem.