by Jamie Davis
Quinn sat Taylor in the passenger seat while she searched the front and back for something to drink. The SUV was empty, aside from a printed rental agreement in the glove compartment. Quinn wondered which of the dead women was Anna Conchat. It didn’t matter. It was probably an alias, anyway.
“I found nothing, T. Sit here. I need to check on Sylvie, then we need to get out of here. Close your door. I’ll be right back.”
Quinn winced as she twisted to search for the fallen dragon. She smiled when she found her.
The little youngling waddled across the pavement toward the SUV. She looked a little battered but otherwise fine.
“Eeeep?”
“I’ll be all right.” Quinn glanced down at the hand pressed against her side. “This’ll heal soon enough. I just need to get home. How are you?”
“Eeeep.”
Quinn nodded. “I guess we are both a little battered. Thanks for fighting so hard.”
The little dragon’s head bobbed once in reply. Quinn bent and scooped her up in her free hand. “Come on. You can sit with Taylor while I drive.”
She returned to the vehicle and got behind the wheel. “We’ll take the SUV for now. We can ditch it later so it isn’t tied to either of us when the police find the two bodies.”
“I hate killing, Quinn. I don’t know how you do it.”
“I don’t like it either. If it’s them or me or to save one of my friends, I’ll do it, though. That’s what you did tonight. You saved me for a change.”
Quinn glanced over to catch Taylor’s eye. She wasn’t looking. She sat in the passenger seat with her knees drawn up, staring out the window. Sylvie nuzzled her, but Taylor didn’t seem to notice.
When they got to a stoplight, Quinn dialed Clark.
“What’s up?” he asked. “You get home? The cook from O’Malley’s stopped by the club and said you weren’t out at the curb.”
“A case of mistaken identity,” Quinn replied. “I found the women responsible for the attack. One of them picked us up. I’m not sure if they knew someone was coming to get us or if it was just dumb luck. She drove us to a neighborhood near Hopkins and ambushed us with her partner.”
“Text me the address, and I’ll get the cleanup crew to go there next. You two hurt?”
“I’m a little dinged. Taylor’s not hurt, but she’s messed up. She went through a full shift during the fight.”
“She hasn’t done that since the beginning. Should I call someone from the local pack to come and chat with her?”
Quinn glanced at her friend. “I can do that if it’s needed. For now, I’ll try to handle it.”
The light turned green and Quinn drove through the intersection, then pulled over and texted the cross streets where the attack happened. “Sending the address now. I’ll text again when we get home. Can you have the cleaners come and get their SUV? That’s what I’m driving now. I’ll park it in the alley by O’Malley’s.”
“I’ll let them know. Get home and take care of Taylor. I’ll wait for your text to make sure you got there safely.”
Quinn disconnected the call.
Taylor said, “You don’t have to coddle me. I need to get used to this, I guess.”
“No, you don’t. You’re not a mass murderer or something, T. You did what you had to do to save yourself from a demon-possessed woman with Hunter training. It’s a miracle both of us aren’t dead right now. You sit back, and we’ll get you home. I’ll brew hot tea for both of us, and we can talk some more up in your apartment.”
Taylor just nodded and went back to watching the city go by outside the window. Quinn’s thoughts cycled between worry for Taylor and worry for Avery.
After running her mind ragged with a series of what-ifs about her girlfriend, Quinn turned her attention back to Taylor for the final time. She was here and now, and that made her priority one. If Avery reached out, Quinn would shift her concern.
Until then, she would focus on Taylor.
Chapter Eight
Quinn opened her eyes and stared at the unfamiliar ceiling. She blinked, still exhausted from the night before. It took her several seconds to remember where she was. She glanced around, taking in the disassembled computer spread all over a small kitchen table. She looked down and realized she was on a couch, not a bed.
Her memory flooded back.
It was Taylor’s couch. At least, it was the couch the last resident had left in the apartment.
A clink of silverware in the small kitchenette and the smell of coffee brought a smile to her lips. A familiar voice hummed a pop song as she worked.
“Morning, T. I hope you made a mug for me.”
“It’s not morning. It’s afternoon,” Taylor came over to the sofa holding a steaming mug of coffee. “And I remembered to make you some.”
Quinn sat up. Sylvie moved from her waist and settled onto a pillow, curling up again and going back to sleep as she reached out for the mug. A twinge of pain in her side reminded her again of the night before. She took a sip of the coffee, ignoring the injury for now. “I’m supposed to be taking care of you, remember? You were pretty upset last night. How’re you feeling this morning?”
Taylor shrugged. “No lasting damage. One benefit of being a shifter: I regenerate most injuries. How about you? You insisted on bandaging that hole in your side by yourself last night.”
“It’s fine. Huntress genes will help me heal fast. I don’t regenerate, but I should be well enough in a day or so. If there’s a problem, I can draw in healing from the ley lines nearby.”
Taylor chuckled, then a wry smile crossed her lips. “We’re a pair, aren’t we? I’m emotionally scarred, and you? Well, you’re just a bundle of them, aren’t you?”
“That’s why we’re best friends, T. We’re perfect for each other.”
Quinn’s phone buzzed. There were four messages from Clark waiting to be read. “Typical. He tells me to sleep in, and then he hits me up with a bunch of messages starting at eight in the morning.”
“At least he didn’t come up here looking for you and bang on the door. He knew we were home. If it was an emergency, he could’ve gotten us easily enough.”
Quinn sipped her coffee and stood to get something to eat. “What do you have that’s good? I’m starving.”
“Nothing in the fridge worth mentioning. I suggest we head down to the pub and get some proper food unless you like cheese puffs and diet cola.”
“No thanks on that,” Quinn said, closing the door on the empty fridge. “Let’s go downstairs. I need fuel for my body to quick-heal. I also need to find out how my mom did, watching Tadpole last night. She wasn’t supposed to stay with him all night like that.”
At the mention of downstairs, Sylvie launched off the sofa and settled in her usual spot on Quinn’s shoulder. The Huntress laughed. “You hungry too?”
“Eeeep.”
Taylor hurried to catch up with Quinn and the dragon as they headed for the door. “I’m hungry too. Honestly, I want to return to normal so I can forget about last night.”
“It doesn’t work that way, T. You know that. You’ll have to talk it all out with someone. It doesn’t have to be me. It can be another werewolf. Clark offered to reach out to the pack for you.”
“I can reach out to the pack on my own if I need to. Let’s just go eat.”
Quinn shrugged. She pulled the door closed and followed Taylor down to the pub. Along the way, she made a mental note to keep an eye on her friend.
The usual lunch rush was still going on, even though it was close to 1:00. O’Malley’s was popular with the supernaturals in the city. Quinn and Taylor ordered their sandwiches directly from the bartender to take the load off Juni and the other two waitresses. He entered it into the computerized system as they grabbed a table to wait for their food.
Quinn texted her mom, telling her where they were. If Naomi wasn’t in a vampire’s regenerative trance, she could join them. She sent a copy of the text to Clark.
He and Nao
mi arrived a few minutes later, just ahead of the sandwiches Quinn and Taylor had ordered.
The dark circles around Clark’s eyes told Quinn he hadn’t slept much, if at all. She wondered how things had settled out the night before.
“Clark, what’s going to happen in the city’s shifter community now that their leadership has been taken out? This has to play into Gemma’s plans somehow.”
“She might have thought the attack would disrupt any support we’d get from the local supernaturals, but the effect is only going to be short term. Most supernatural shifter types work under a pack structure, and they have long-standing traditions for replacing leaders. Before I left the club this morning, most of the pack betas had contacted me to let me know they’d stepped into the alpha position.”
Quinn’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. “That’s it? They just take over?”
Clark ran a hand through his graying hair and scratched the back of his neck. “I’m sure there will be a few internal power struggles. Luckily for us, most of them will be just that: internal. I’ll keep an ear to the ground to make sure none of the shake-ups that do happen spill over into the rest of the community. If Gemma makes her move soon, we won’t be able to count on the packs for a lot of support, but that should settle out after a few weeks.”
Quinn was glad the effects were only temporary. She returned to working on her meal. Sylvie hopped down to sit on the arm of the chair and stared at Quinn until she slid a small plate of fried fish over. The long neck snaked out, and she tore chunks off the cooked fish and gulped them down.
Naomi chuckled. “Did you forget to feed her?”
“Nah, we just slept through breakfast.”
The vampire reached down to stroke the dragon’s head. Sylvie whipped around, snapping at her.
“Hey,” Quinn said, reaching out to push Sylvie’s head away from her mother’s outstretched hand. “That’s not nice.”
Naomi checked her fingertips after the close call and shook her head. “You really need to get her some obedience training. Have you set up a time to take her out to meet Chessie?”
“Mom, I’m sorry, I—”
She cut Quinn off. “You haven’t taken her to meet the big mama dragon, and I think it’s time you did.”
“I’m sure she’s just out of sorts because she’s hungry.”
“We can’t have that happen every time she’s eating. Sylvie needs to learn manners, Quinn. Take her to see Chessie. You promised the old dragon you’d do it.”
Clark nodded. “She’s right. I can understand if you’re afraid of going back there. It’s got to be terrifying to face something that ancient and powerful.”
Quinn began objecting that she wasn’t scared. She stopped because it wouldn’t fool anyone at the table. They all knew she’d be lying.
“Of course I was scared. I’m just not sure what benefit can be gained by going there. Chessie could have changed her mind. Then what do I say when I show up with Sylvie?”
Naomi said, “Start off with, ‘I told you I’d come back, and here I am.’”
“Chessie could decide to keep her, Mom. I’m not sure I could give her up if that happens.”
Clark laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“You know the issues we’re having raising Sylvie. Imagine being an eighty- or ninety-year-old woman and going through all this. That thousand-year-old dragon will not have the patience to do everything you’re doing. She doesn’t want to raise a youngling. My guess is Chessie only wants to assure herself you’re treating Sylvie right.”
His argument made a little sense, but it didn’t mean she wasn’t still nervous. The last time she was in the dragon’s cave, Chessie had commented she might eat Quinn at some later date. Of course, that could be part of Chessie’s ordinary bluster. The Huntress only knew a few dragons.
Quinn sighed. “I guess I need to reach out to Jori and see if I can get a ride out to Chessie’s island.”
“Do you want one or two of us to come along as far as the boat trip goes?” Taylor offered. “It wasn’t an awful trip. I could do it again.”
“No, you all have your own things you have to get done. I’ll have Sylvie with me for company.”
Sylvie looked up from the half-eaten plate of food. “Eeeep?”
“Don’t play innocent. You know you’re in trouble for snapping at my mother. Now you have to face Chessie for it.”
Sylvie ignored the comment, returning to her fish.
Quinn glanced at Clark. “How did it go last night after we drove home? Were you or the cleaners able to identify those women?”
Clark shook his head. “I’m pretty sure they were both from outside the country. I had a contact at the airport check recent arrivals. They were both seen coming through the international terminal on the way to the rental car desk.”
Taylor asked, “Maybe they’re an advance team here to prepare for Gemma’s arrival?”
“You could be right, T. Avery warned me about the attacks on her and the girls. If Gemma is turning her trainees into demon-kinder, it has to be part of a larger plan. The fact that four of them turned up in Baltimore can’t be good news.”
“Clark and I will look into that,” Naomi said. “You focus on Sylvie for now. You helped us deal with Tadpole. He was perfectly fine last night. He kept wanting to show me his latest weapons restoration projects. Go do the same for that little dragon.”
Quinn nodded. She stroked the smooth scales of the dragon seated on the arm of her chair. Sylvie turned her tiny head around, gulping down another mouthful of fish. Emerald green eyes stared up at her.
Her connection to Sylvie was hard for Quinn to explain, even to herself. It had begun before she hatched, when Quinn used to talk to the egg when the two were alone in her apartment.
She wondered what went on in that little mind. Quinn longed for the time when Sylvie could communicate beyond a simple “Eeeep.” Someday she would learn to speak to her mind to mind. That was how the other two dragons talked to her. She guessed it would come in time. Quinn decided it was enough to feel the sliver of the dragon’s presence in the corner of her brain. She felt it there whenever Sylvie was close to her.
“I’ll contact Jori right after we finish our food.” Her stomach gurgled at the mention of her lunch. Quinn leaned forward to grab her sandwich. The motion tugged the edges of the wound in her side and she winced.
“You’re hurt?” Naomi asked. “Where? Let me see.”
“I’m fine. I’ll take care of it after I call Jori.”
“She’s not fine,” Taylor said. “She took a sword through her side.”
Quinn glared at her friend. “It just needs some meditation and a little time.”
“A sword through your side?” Naomi said. “That’s not just a scratch. Where is it?”
Quinn reached down and lifted the edge of her shirt a little to show the bandages. “It went right through the muscle. No vital organs. I’m not spitting or peeing blood. I’m fine.”
Clark shook his head. “Your mother’s right. I’ll call Jori for you after lunch. You go with her when you finish eating and let her look at it. We all need to be in top condition. If Gemma’s coming here in force, they could outnumber us, which will magnify every advantage or disadvantage.”
Clark had that “I won’t take no for an answer” look in his eyes.
“Fine, but you’ll see that it’s already healing on its own.”
“It might be,” her mother said. “But you definitely shouldn’t be swimming until the wound closes. After I check it, we’ll do a directed meditation. You can tap into the ley lines if that doesn’t work.”
“I thought you and Clark didn’t want me doing that too often?”
“If Gemma and her Hunter demons are coming, you need to be at full strength. Maybe you can try to just tap enough to facilitate the healing. It’ll be excellent practice for you to learn control.”
“I wish Avery were here. She could do it for me.”
&n
bsp; Taylor smiled and murmured, “That’s not all she could do for you.”
“I heard that,” Quinn said. A flush of heat rushed across her face, and everyone started chuckling.
She looked around at her friends. “Hey, we haven’t seen each other in a while. Long-distance relationships are hard.”
“No argument there, Quinn,” Clark said. “Finish your food. I’ll tell Jori to set up the trip for two nights from now. That’ll give us enough time to make sure you’re fully healed. I want you to get it over with before Avery shows up. I get the feeling a boatload of trouble will come along with her.”
“You think Avery might be here that soon?” Taylor asked.
“I’m not sure, but it’s possible. According to Quinn, two days ago, she was just south of Mexico. If she gets passports with the money we sent, crossing the border into the States should be no problem. If she has enough left over, she could even bring the girls here by plane. We don’t know.”
Quinn shook her head. “She won’t come by any mainstream travel route. She said Gemma’s Hunters had tracked her somehow. Avery will try to lose them by going off the major roads. It’s what I would do. Even with passports, she’ll probably still try to sneak across the border in case they compromised the immigration system. Someone could alert Gemma.”
Clark stroked his chin. “Hmmm, given all that, they could be another week or longer. It would be helpful if we knew for sure. Let’s hope she contacts you again. We could use an idea of her route and arrival time.”
Clark left them at the table. Naomi kept staring at Quinn’s side as if trying to see through her shirt to the wound underneath.
Quinn gulped down the rest of her sandwich. She stood. “Come on, Mother. You’re driving me crazy. Let’s go so you can check me out up close.”
Naomi nodded, a satisfied smile on her face. Quinn reached for the last few fries, shoving them in her mouth. “Come on, Sylvie. Time to go.”
The dragon hopped onto Quinn’s shoulder.
Quinn asked Taylor, “What are you doing for the rest of the day?”
“I’ve been working on getting a spare VR rig online, in between working on the new app. Now that the app system is on indefinite hold, I’m back to working on that. I’m always worried that a tech problem could put the system offline for an extended time. We have all that extra gear from the VirSync group. I figure it’s stupid not to use it.”
