Fire Born (City of Dragons Book 5)

by Val St. Crowe

  “And then we get here and find that you’ve got Vivica hidden away here,” said Gran.

  “I’m hardly hiding,” said Vivica. “I told Mom where I was.”

  “Well, she didn’t mention a thing to us,” said Gran.

  “Probably because she’s afraid of you,” I said. It was the first thing I’d said to either of them in years. I couldn’t believe they’d come all the way down here to scold me for calling the Foxworths.

  “Afraid of us?” said Gramps. “That’s ridiculous.”

  “Utterly ridiculous.”

  I glared at them. “All right, you’ve come and told me off, now it’s time for you both to go.”

  “Go?” said Gran. “You are the epitome of rudeness, young lady. We traveled all the way down here to see you, and the least you could do is offer us something to drink or a place to sit down.”

  “That would imply that I want you to stay, and I don’t,” I said. Seeing them was making me feel shaky all over. I was remembering how blasé they’d been about kicking me out of my childhood home after I’d finally made it away from Alastair. Oh, Penelope, we couldn’t have you here. What would people think of us? It would make us look as if we’d encouraged you to leave your mate. They’d had the audacity to tell me to go back to him, even after I told them all the awful things he’d done to me.

  My grandmother wrung her hands. “I don’t know where it is that we went wrong with you. Maybe we indulged you too much after the death of your parents.”

  “But we can hardly be blamed for our behavior, then,” said my grandfather. “We were out of our minds with grief. It’s astonishing we even knew to feed you or clothe you.”

  “You paid people to feed me,” I snapped. “And clothe me. And watch me and play with me too. It was hardly a strain for you.”

  Gran’s jaw dropped. She turned to look at Vivica. “Listen to me, child, I don’t think you should stay here.”

  Vivica’s eyebrows shot up. “I don’t really have much choice, do I, Gran? Unless you’re saying I could go back home, of course.”

  “Now, that would be absolutely inappropriate,” said my grandmother. “What with your condition and all that. I still don’t understand how you could possibly think to bring that half-breed into the world. Vivica, when you meet your mate, and you have a child already, it is going to be quite the impasse.”

  “I’m not going to meet my mate if I can help it,” said Vivica brightly. “After all this, I don’t much feel welcome in dragon society. I think I’ll avoid the lot of you.”

  Gran gasped.

  Gramps gasped. He turned to me. “This is your doing, isn’t it? You’re simply too far gone. That’s not even to mention the fact that the Cooper family is mourning their son and wishes to know news of their grandchild—”

  “This is not Alastair’s baby,” I said.

  Gran gasped again. She clutched her necklace. It would have been perfect if it had been a string of pearls, but instead they were polished wooden beads. She staggered over to the couch and sat down, seemingly unable to breathe.

  Gramps went to her immediately, patting her on the back.

  She was crying. “I don’t understand it,” she sobbed. “The depths to which you have sunk. And you don’t even have the decency to apologize for the ways you’ve hurt us.”

  “For the ways I’ve hurt you?” I clenched my hands into fists. “You’re unbelievable. I want you out. Now.”

  “Can’t you see your grandmother is distraught?” said Gramps. “You can’t go ordering us out in a moment like this. Allow her some time to collect herself.”

  My grandmother got out a handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes.

  I exchanged a glance with Vivica.

  “I suppose your child isn’t a dragon either?” said Gran, her voice wavering. She was trying very hard to keep herself together, but she was failing. Interesting. I’d only seen her get more upset than this on one occasion, and I wish I could say it was my parents’ death, but it was actually when the caterers had completely messed up her dinner for a garden party. “I suppose that you are diluting our great bloodline with no thought to the future or what awful things lie in store for a poor child like that. It’s really quite cruel, in fact. How can a child who has none of the powers of his mother feel as if he’s growing into anything special? In fact, you should both give those children up. Let them live in normal homes where they won’t be ridiculed.”

  “If you do, Vivica, you can come home right away,” said Gramps.

  “Oh, so I’m welcome, but not your own grandchild?” said Vivica. “Penny’s right. Get out of here now.” Now Vivica was starting to cry.

  Gramps shook his head. “Penelope, what have you done to this once great family? Ever since you left your mate, things have been crumbling. You have put in motion the wheels to destroy us.”

  Gran clutched at his sleeve. “What if they find out that her child is fathered by some human, Edgar? What will they think of us, then? We won’t be invited to the brunches at the Sandersons anymore, I shouldn’t think. One granddaughter who is breeding with another species is one thing, but two begins to look as if it’s been encouraged in the home. They’ll never speak to us again.”

  He patted her hand. “Now, dear, we won’t allow that to happen.” He looked over at me. “Penelope, we think you should leave town.”

  “Leave town?” I said. “You guys live in Connecticut. It’s hours away.”

  “Yes, but so many of our friends vacation here, and you are far too prominent a figure in this town.”

  “We’ll be happy to help, of course,” said my grandfather. “We’ll buy this hotel from you, at a price that will give you a hefty profit. And we’ll be happy to help you arrange movers and a truck and—”

  “I’m not leaving Sea City!” I said.

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake, why not?” said Gran. “Is it because you take some great joy in torturing us?”

  “No,” I said. “It’s because I like it here. It’s got nothing to do with you. You’re both selfish and horrible. You’re frozen inside. No heart. No caring. Nothing. I spent so long wondering why you were so horrible to me, wondering what it was I’d done that made you not love me enough. And now I realize it had nothing to do with me. It’s the two of you. You’re incapable of feeling anything real.”

  “Penelope, don’t be dramatic,” said Gramps.

  “No,” I said. “Get out. Get out now.”

  * * *

  “I have to admit, I didn’t think it all through when I started dating Dan,” said Vivica. “I probably should have, but I liked him a lot, and I was caught up in the two of us together, so I barely gave any thought to the future at all.”

  “You didn’t think about meeting your mate or anything like that?” I said.

  Vivica shrugged. “You know, there’s this rumor going around that the mating bond is bullshit.”

  “It isn’t true,” I said.

  “But you left Alastair,” she said. “No one does that.”

  “Leaving him was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” I said. “Do you know why I left?”

  She shrugged. “Not really, I guess.”

  I sighed. “I guess Gran and Gramps refused to talk about it.”

  “Not a word,” she said.

  “Well, I left because he hurt me,” I said. “Physically. He beat me.”

  She was astonished. “What?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. I stayed for a long time, and I put up with it a lot, but eventually, I found the strength to get away from him. But even after I was gone, I still felt the bond to him. I still wanted him, even though he was the most horrible person that I had ever known.”

  She knitted her brow together. “But if the mating bond’s real, and he was bonded to you, then how could he hurt you? I thought the bond made you love that other person more than anything else on earth.”

  “Not exactly,” I said. “It’s a mating bond. It makes you want to, you know, mate.”
/>   She nodded slowly. “Oh.”

  I shrugged. “Yeah.”

  “So, when Gran and Gramps are saying that I’ll meet my mate someday, and it’ll be a problem, they’re not wrong.” She frowned.

  “It won’t be a problem,” I said. “Not if you happen to be mated to a nice guy, like most people. I got the short end of the stick, but the mating bond works really well for ninety percent of dragons. Your mate won’t care that you have a kid already. He won’t care about anything except getting you into bed immediately.”

  She let out a little laugh. “Okay.”

  “It’ll work out,” I said.

  “Or maybe I really won’t meet him,” she said. “Because I don’t intend to ever go back into dragon society, like I said.”

  “Are you okay with that?” I said.

  “Couldn’t you have another mate? Sometimes when one mate dies, people find someone else.”

  “I found Lachlan,” I said. “I don’t want another mate.”

  “But what if you did meet him, and he was great, you—”

  “No,” I said. “I know what it is now, the mating bond. It’s sexual attraction. I resisted it with Alastair, and I could resist it again if I had to. What I have with Lachlan is real. It’s not some biological imperative.” But even as I said it, I wondered about the blood bond between Lachlan and me. Why had that happened? Where had it come from?

  “Well, maybe that’s what I want,” said Vivica. “Maybe I don’t want a mating bond. Maybe I was something real. Something like what I had with Dan.” She blinked, and there were tears in her eyes. “Hell, I want Dan back. You have to find whoever it was that took him from me.”

  I gripped her wrist. “We will. Trust me, we will.”

  She brushed at her tears. “I might need a little time to myself now.”

  “Okay,” I said, hugging her. “I’m so sorry you lost him, Vivica. I’m so, so sorry.”

  She let out a gasping sob.

  I tightened my arms around her.

  And then she was falling apart in my arms.

  I held her.

  * * *

  “So, your grandparents didn’t stick around?” said Lachlan as he took off his coat.

  “Did you find out about the DNA?” I said.

  “I kind of wanted to meet them. You never talk about your family, Penny.” He crossed the room and kissed me on the forehead.

  “Was there a match?” I said. “That DNA belong to anyone in the system?”

  “Yes,” he said. “We have a name. He’s been arrested for public drunkenness a number of times, but nothing worse than that.”

  “You think he’s the guy?”

  “Dirk sure does. I want to meet him first.” He put both his hands on my belly. “Hey little man, how are you?”

  In response, the baby kicked.

  “See that?” said Lachlan. “He knows my voice.”

  “He does,” I agreed. “When he gets out here, he’ll know we’re his mommy and daddy.”

  Lachlan kissed me again.

  I held onto him, glad we could be close again. “Hey, they brought the new bed this afternoon. I tried to put the sheets on it, but I got exhausted. You’re going to have to make it up.”

  “Okay.” He pulled back and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. “How come you won’t talk to me about your grandparents?”

  “Oh, they’re assholes.” I sighed. “Total assholes.”

  “Huh. That’s too bad.” He went into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and got himself some blood.

  I sat down on the couch. “They said that I had hurt them so bad by leaving my mate and having a baby that wasn’t full-blood dragon, and they were worried they wouldn’t get invited to brunch at the Sandersons because everyone would think badly of them. They told Vivica that if she gives the baby up for adoption, she can come back home.”

  He leaned against the fridge, drinking straight out of the container. “They’re assholes.”

  “Yeah,” I said, laughing.

  “Well, screw them,” he said. “You don’t need them.”

  “You know, you never talk about your family either.”

  He scratched the back of his neck. “My mom passed about five years back. She got to know Hallie a little, but she never knew what happened to her, and I think that’s a blessing.”

  “I’m sorry, Lachlan. You never said anything. Even when I talked about my parents, you didn’t.” I started to get up to go to him.

  But he gestured for me to sit. He came over and sat on the couch next to me. “She was in pain. She had cancer. It was hard to watch her go, but… I don’t know, there was a relief in it, too, that her suffering was ending. Anyway, I guess, I don’t know. If I’m ranking the sad things that have happened in my life, that one’s sort of bittersweet.”

  I rubbed his arm. “I get that. Still, she was your mom.”

  “Yeah.” He hung his head, swallowing hard.

  I gave him a hug.

  He kissed my forehead. “I miss my mother sometimes. I really do.”

  “And your dad?”

  “Oh, he’s still kicking around, but we don’t talk. He and my mom got divorced when I was maybe fifteen. I was kind of glad to see him go. He was awful to her, always putting her down, calling her names and stuff. Good riddance, I say.”

  “Well, that’s terrible too,” I said, saddened that there was more darkness in Lachlan’s life than I had known about.

  “Nah,” he said. “Things are good now. We have a big bed, and it’s okay to touch you, and the baby knows my voice. Right now, I don’t feel like anything’s terrible.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Terry Jenkins appeared nervous, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything, I reminded myself. Talking to the cops made a lot of people nervous, whether they were guilty or not. He was the man whose DNA matched the DNA found at the latest killing. He was sitting on the couch, and his sister, whose name was Michelle, was there with him.

  Lachlan, Dirk, and I sat opposite them on several kitchen chairs. I could tell that Lachlan was antsy, wanting to take charge and ask the questions, but he’d promised to let Dirk take the lead, so he had to stay quiet. He put one foot up over his knee. Then he took it down.

  “Do you know why we’re here, Terry?” said Dirk.

  “Uh, I think it’s about the serial killer case,” said Terry.

  “Why would you think that?” said Dirk.

  “Well, because I used to date Joey Green,” said Terry. “He’s the latest victim, and I figure it’s got to be connected to that.”

  “Date?” said Lachlan, breaking in. “Joseph Green was actually gay? All the other victims were straight.”

  “Well, he wasn’t out to his family or anything,” said Terry, “but yeah, he was pretty gay.” He chuckled a little, then his face crumpled. “Horrible way to go, though. He was such a good guy.”

  Dirk wasn’t fazed by this show of emotion. “How long did you and Joseph date?”

  “About six months,” said Terry.

  “And you weren’t dating anymore at the time of the murder?”

  “No, we decided to see other people,” said Terry. “I wanted us to have an open relationship, see other people, and he wasn’t cool with that, so we decided it was better if we ended things.” He flinched. “Actually, I kind of decided. I left him. And I have to admit I was glad to find out it wasn’t a suicide, because I blamed myself for what happened to him.”

  “What do you mean, you blamed yourself?” said Dirk.

  “Well, I thought that maybe I had made him so upset about things that he’d hurt himself,” said Terry. “But that wasn’t what happened.”

  “Look, this is hard for Terry,” said Michelle. “But it’s not his fault at all, so why are you asking him that?”

  Dirk narrowed her eyes at Michelle. “You know, maybe it would be better if you let your brother talk himself.”

  “I was only saying—”

  “I don’t want to
have to ask you to leave,” said Dirk.

  Michelle pressed her lips into a firm line.

  Dirk turned back to Terry. “I’ll come right to it, Terry. Your DNA was found at the crime scene.”

  “My DNA?” said Terry. He furrowed his brow. “Well, I guess that might make sense, because I was with Joey a lot. I mean, if you tested my coat over there for his DNA, you’d probably find a stray hair or something. Hell, my DNA’s probably all over Joey’s apartment and his clothes.”

  Dirk pursed her lips. “You’re telling me that the presence of your DNA is down to transference?”

  “Well, it would have to be, because I was never at the crime scene,” said Terry.

  “Where were you, then?” said Dirk.

  A strange look crossed Terry’s face, as if he was now realizing that he was a suspect. “I, uh, I was at home alone when Joey was killed.”

  “Home alone, huh?” Dirk sat back, folding her arms over her chest.

  “Wait, you can’t think that Terry did this,” said Michelle. “Terry would never. He’s the gentlest person I know.”

  “Do you use magic?” said Dirk. “You own talismans? You a vampire?”

  “No,” said Joey. “No magic.”

  “Would you let us search your home to make sure there’s no magical artifacts here?” said Dirk.

  “Search his house?” Michelle was on her feet. “Look, lady, you don’t have the right to do that without a warrant. Even I know that.”

  “Is that how you want to play it, then?” said Dirk. “You want me to get a warrant?”

  “Yes,” said Michelle. “You won’t find anything here, and if I thought that would stop you, I’d say start looking. But since you’re dead set on arresting my brother for this, then you’d better leave us alone until we have the chance to get a lawyer.”

  Dirk ignored Michelle and focused on Terry. “What about the nights of the other murders?” She started rattling off the dates.