Elven Doom (Death Before Dragons Book 4)

by Lindsay Buroker

Lirena had been unfastening one of the trinkets from her bracelet, but she paused, as if reconsidering. I had no idea what the charm did, but now that she’d started to give it to me, I would be disappointed not to get it. Especially if it could help protect against dragons.

  The charm looked like a large diamond, though it did not sparkle in the light. There was a matching one dangling on her other wrist—if she had two, then parting with one wouldn’t be a big deal, right?

  “I have heard from the magical beings here that you are an assassin,” Lirena admitted.

  “Of magical beings who commit crimes, yes.”

  “I will refrain from passing judgment until I see what this entails.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  It was so nice that I had so many observers these days. I almost suggested that she track Zondia down to get my files so they could peruse them together.

  Lirena ignored my sarcasm and held out the diamond charm.

  “What does it do?”

  “It will make you lucky.” Lirena placed it in my palm.

  “That’s it? Lucky?” I curbed an urge to let that word come out laced with sarcasm. Magic emanated from the item, and it was slightly warm against my skin. Maybe it was better than it sounded.

  “It is a desirable charm among many species and more valuable than you might guess, but it will have to prove itself to you over time. It will make you less likely to get sick, more likely to evade a deadly blow in battle, and more likely to land on your feet if you are knocked out of a tree.”

  “So basically, it keeps me from rolling a one?” I waved toward the D&D books on my shelf. I hadn’t had anyone to play with since I’d gotten out of the army, but I still had my dice and a few old manuals.

  “Is a one bad?”

  “Yeah. A fumble, critical failure, whatever you want to call it.”

  “It may not prevent you from ever rolling a one, but you should notice that it makes you luckier in battle and in life.”

  “And in avoiding dragons?”

  “I shall hope so for your sake. Nobody wants to deal with dragons.”

  “Very true.” I wondered what Zav would think of the charm. That I’d been snookered? It was magical. It had to do something, but this wasn’t the epic dragon-repelling artifact I’d hoped for.

  “We will meet again, Val. I will let you know when I finish my observations and am ready to leave your world.” Lirena gave me the same bow mixed with a curtsy that Freysha had offered, then walked to the door. “Do you want me to replace this behind me? It appears somewhat broken.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I have a frequent-shopper card at the hardware store.”

  She gave me a blank look before she walked out.

  I’d been tempted to ask what kind of observing she would be doing, but did it matter when a dragon was already prying into my life? What was one more stalker? Maybe I should publish my autobiography and put it on the coffee table to make things easier on everyone who broke into my apartment.

  It was too late to go to the hardware store for wood and new hinges, so I did my best to shove the door back into the broken frame and plopped my heavy change jug down in front of it to keep it from falling inward. After that, I flopped down on my bed and contemplated moving to a new apartment building. I’d done this annually in the past, but it never seemed to make a difference. My enemies could always find me. So, it seemed, could elven spies and overly protective dragon siblings.

  12

  The next night, I was driving up the dark winding roads of Woodinville toward Zoltan’s carriage house when I sensed Zav for the first time since someone had called him back to his world.

  My day hadn’t turned up anything relevant to the mission, so I hoped he’d found a dark-elf lair or two on his way back from his portal. Doubtful, but the time I’d spent hunting for Rupert and bribing anyone who’d ever gone to his establishment for information had amounted to nothing.

  At least I’d gotten my door repaired that morning and another lock installed. On a whim, I’d purchased a scratch lottery ticket to test the luck of my new charm. I’d won a hundred dollars. Maybe Lirena hadn’t been exaggerating the usefulness of the charm.

  Even better, Zav’s sister hadn’t returned. That surprised me. I’d kept expecting her. If all Lirena's flute had done was hurt her ears while she’d been in range, why wouldn’t she have returned as soon as the elf left?

  I didn’t want to relive the mind-scouring experience, but I didn’t think she’d gotten deep enough to learn all that she needed. I kept worrying that she thought I’d set up a trap with Lirena, that I’d known her and invited her to come attack Zondia while she’d been busy reading my mind. If so, that may be why Zondia was staying away. And she would never believe I had no ill intent toward Zav.

  He was flying right over my Jeep now—it was too dark to see him, but I sensed him.

  Do you want me to stop so you can get in? I asked.

  We were still a couple of miles from Zoltan’s place. Dimitri had called on his behalf right after dark, saying he had some information on the shard.

  My passenger-side door opened, startling me. Zav, in his human form, pulled himself inside as a huge gust of wind flung the hem of his robe up. There was something amusing about the fact that these shapeshifters got their human bodies correct all the way down to the wavy dark leg hair. At least his lack of underwear wasn’t apparent this time. I knew from our hot tub interaction that he didn’t wear any.

  “Not necessary.” Zav settled in and closed the door.

  I reached over and pushed his hem down so his bare knee and shin hair weren’t visible. They weren’t offensive so much as they made me think about Zav nude, and I didn’t need to do that. It was bad enough that his magnetic aura was noticeable when we were this close.

  “You must have missed me,” he said. “Already you are fondling my leg. Is this not considered foreplay among humans?”

  “If I had foreplay in mind, I’d be uncovering you, not the other way around.”

  He took that in stride. “You are going to visit the vampire?”

  “Yes. I’ve been scouring Seattle for clues about the dark elves, but I haven’t found much. Zoltan has information about that shard.”

  “Excellent. Due to matters at home, I have been unable to further my investigation here. Earlier, my mother ordered me not to leave this world until I finished capturing all of the criminals here, but then she ordered me home to glare menacingly at her political enemies.” He spread a hand, as if this wasn’t surprising.

  “She’s the one who called you home? I assumed it was your sister.”

  “No. Why would my sister have called me?”

  “To get you away from my vile clutches.”

  Zav looked over at me. In confusion?

  “Because we were about to have sex against the wall of a building in Ballard,” I said. “Also, she was pissed that I fed you.”

  “Ah.” He drew out the single syllable, infusing it with understanding. “She spoke to you?”

  “We’ve had several conversations now.” I turned down the road that led toward Zoltan’s subdivision.

  “I instructed her to leave you alone.”

  “Does she usually obey you?”

  “No,” he admitted. “My mother’s political enemies are more likely to wilt under my stare than my little sister is.”

  “I think that’s typical among most siblings. How’d you make her enemies wilt?”

  “Word has gotten out that I defeated Dobsaurin and almost single-handedly defeated Shaygorthian and his two kin as well. There are also rumors that I killed Dobsaurin despite the Justice Court’s official statement to the contrary. I think my sister may have been behind them. Whether she acted of her own accord or was carrying out our mother’s wishes, I do not know, but many dragons now believe me to be unbalanced, unpredictable, extremely dangerous, and capable of killing our own kind.”

  I couldn’t tell how he felt about that. Did he sound slightly d
azed?

  “My mother is using that to her advantage,” he said.

  “Will having such a reputation harm you?”

  “It’s too soon to tell. Some dragons may fear to battle me because of it. Others will seek me out and challenge me, thus to defeat me and better their own status.”

  If that was a typical dragon thing, that might explain why Zondia believed I wanted to kill Zav to improve my own reputation.

  “Already, I was forced to engage in one such fight. It is why I did not return earlier. I was injured, but I am healing quickly. If you wish to go to the shapeshifter headquarters tonight, I will accompany you.”

  “What do you mean you were injured? Some dumbass dragon challenged you to a duel? And you fought him?” Realizing I’d driven past the house, I turned the Jeep around and headed back.

  “I had no choice. But do not worry for me. I was victorious.” His smile was smug as he looked over at me. “You have allowed yourself to be claimed by a powerful dragon. I will protect you, and no other dragon will take you from me.” He was back to wearing his usual slippers. Maybe he’d decided that the flamboyantly colored high-tops were not the footwear of a powerful dragon.

  “You’re the only dragon crazy enough to want me, but I’m glad you can handle yourself against others of your kind.” I tried not to think about what would happen if more than one dragon ganged up on him. Despite the rumors his sister had started, he hadn’t been winning that fight against three of them. Not even with my help, though I hadn’t done more than keep one of the dragons distracted for a minute.

  I parked in front of the bushes across the street from the house and looked Zav over, wondering where he’d been hurt. In the past, injuries he’d received in his dragon form had shown up on his human body.

  Perhaps guessing at my silent question, he pulled up the hem of his robe, this time all the way to his hip. “He got in a lucky blow to my flank that was very deep.”

  The light of the dash revealed three deep gouges—talon marks—on the outside of his thigh.

  “Ouch. I’m sorry.” I was glad I hadn’t inadvertently touched that spot when I’d tugged his hem down. It had to hurt. A lot.

  “It will heal,” Zav said, as if it were a hangnail. He pushed the hem back down. “I am a powerful warrior.”

  He gazed at me. Was he trying to impress me by giving me this information and showing off his war wound? Well, he’d helped me enough times that I knew he was badass, so I didn’t bother attempting to deflate his ego. It wasn’t as if it would work.

  “I never doubted that.” I met his gaze, thoughts of that molten kiss flashing into my mind, and looked away.

  The last thing I wanted was to prompt his sister to show up and start yammering in his mind about how my elven cousin had attacked her.

  “Let’s go see Zoltan.” I reached for the door handle.

  “Val.” Zav rested a hand on my other arm. Even though my duster covered my skin, a little zing danced along my nerves. Damn dragon magic. “First, I must explain something.”

  “You’ve already covered your magnificence and battle prowess.”

  “That is not it.” He lifted his hand but held me in place with his gaze. “I wish to explain my actions the other night.”

  “You don’t have to explain anything. We’re…” I turned my palm up, not sure of the word I wanted. Dating? Flirting? Hot for each other? We hadn’t admitted to any of that. The other night after dinner had been the first time he’d actually said he wanted me. Before that, he’d been assuring me he didn’t. Though I’d been close enough to him a couple of times to know that at least his human parts were interested in me.

  Zav raised his eyebrows, maybe as curious as I was about how I would define us.

  “Allies,” I finished.

  “Do human allies frequently engage in precoital acts in public?” He didn’t point out that the precoital acts had been well on their way to becoming coital when his sister had shown up.

  “I believe the definition of the word involves people cooperating with or assisting each other to achieve a particular outcome. Sex isn’t explicitly excluded. The word is nicely vague.”

  He snorted softly. “Very well. But I wish to explain that dragons experience strong feelings when they are hunting and eating. We are predators, after all.”

  “Your sister said feeding you gets you horny.”

  He blinked. “I wouldn’t put it exactly like that, but… it can cause something of a euphoric state. When a male and female feed together, mating often happens after that. It can also lower one’s inhibitions. Similar to the way alcohol acts in the systems of your species.”

  “So when you said you’d been into me since the water-treatment plant, that wasn’t true?”

  “It is true. I had not intended to say it. Or to act on it.”

  “Because you don’t trust me.”

  “Because my past has made me wary, yes, and because I claimed you as a means to protect you, but I am realizing I may not have achieved that. It is true that you are no longer in danger of being brought before the Justice Court, but you may be a target for others because of the link between us.” Zav’s hand strayed to his thigh. Had his enemy brought me up during that fight? “Your life is now more dangerous because I am in it. I will do everything I can to protect you from dragons and all others, but you should never have been brought into our world.”

  “I’m not going to disagree with that, but my life was already dangerous. It comes with the job I picked.”

  “You can handle most of your enemies. Dragons are another matter.”

  “I can’t deny that.”

  “It would be for the best if we can figure out a way to cause all dragons to forget you exist and to forget your world exists, or at least lose all interest in visiting it.”

  “Earth would be a safer place without dragons,” I admitted, but I didn’t like the implication that all dragons might include him. My life would be simpler and maybe safer if he were gone, but did I truly want that? He wasn’t an appropriate match for a relationship—my therapist agreed—but I would miss him if I never saw him again. “Does that mean you’re planning to leave and not come back once you’ve collected all your criminals?”

  His gaze shifted toward the windshield, though the dark street was empty. “That would be the wisest course of action. Dobsaurin would never have come here if he hadn’t been looking for me. The others wouldn’t have come if we hadn’t killed him.”

  “You didn’t kill him. Don’t blame yourself for that.”

  “And my sister wouldn’t now be here harassing you if not for me.”

  “Did she tell you about the mind-scouring?”

  His gaze jerked back to my face, his eyes sharp. “She tried to steal your thoughts again?”

  “I told her she could. She broke into my apartment and saw that poster of you, the one the dark elves stabbed the face of, and she was convinced I’d done it. I thought that if I let her see my memories and opened everything up, maybe she would realize I’m not your enemy.”

  He radiated anger and displeasure, and I wasn’t sure he’d even heard my response. Even though I knew the anger was for his sister and not me, a shiver ran down my spine, and I grew more aware of the dangerous power coiled within him.

  “She hurt you?” he asked harshly, his voice almost a growl. He lifted his hand to the side of my face, his thumb touching my lips, his fingers brushing my temple where Zondia had touched me.

  “It’s fine, Zav.”

  My heart was pounding. In part because I didn’t want to put a rift between him and his sister, and in part because I didn’t know what he would do. My body tightened in response to his touch. I longed to lean closer, but I was also wary. Nothing good had come of dragons touching my temple.

  Was he just reassuring me? Or did he mean to do something to my mind?

  “I said she could do it,” I repeated, my mouth dry.

  “She will know my wrath, that she cannot defy me in
this.”

  “It really wasn’t a big deal. I know she’s looking out for you.”

  A pleasant warmth flowed from his fingers, a magical caress that soothed my scalp like a good massage, then flowed downward through the rest of my body. What exactly he was doing, I didn’t know, but it invigorated as it soothed me, relaxing my nerves and my muscles, and the week’s tension seeped out of my body. I slumped forward, resting my forehead against his shoulder, basking in the healing magic like a cat in a sunbeam.

  His fingers shifted into my hair, winding under my braid and rubbing my scalp. That stirred up new sensations that had less to do with healing and more with bedroom thoughts. I told myself to lean back and get out of the Jeep, even if crawling over into his lap sounded more appealing. He’d just given a very good reason why we shouldn’t be together. It was somewhat hypocritical of him to start touching me. But I didn’t pull away.

  “When I am finished here on Earth,” Zav murmured, his lips not far from my ear, “there will be no reason for dragons to come back, nor for my kin to bother you.”

  “No dragons to massage the back of my head and send magical tingles through my body,” I muttered into his shoulder.

  “It is for the best.” He withdrew his fingers and leaned back, the magic slowly fading. “You will be safe and not used as a lever against me.”

  The cold of disappointment came in where the warmth of his magic had been.

  A sudden suspicion crept into me. “Did your mother talk to you about me while she was using you for politics?”

  His lips twisted ruefully. “We did speak about you.”

  “About how foolish it was for you to claim a mongrel?” I turned away from him and stared out the windshield. The last thing I’d wanted was for him to claim me, like some prize with no rights, but now that he was withdrawing, I resented that someone else might have caused it.

  “She did call me foolish. For many reasons. But it was the encounters with my family’s enemies that made me realize my act was not entirely altruistic. I wanted to claim you.”

  His gaze grew intent again as he studied my profile. I could see him out of the corner of my eye, but I kept looking straight ahead, afraid I would be drawn to him again if I met that gaze.