The Dragon's Hunt

by Jane Kindred

  “My phone was torched and she said she’d call you. And I wasn’t nearly killed. There was a small fire, but I’m fine—”

  “A small fire? I saw it on the news, and it was not small. Not to mention they think it was arson. And Ione said you had to jump out a two-story window!”

  “Barely one story.”

  “But your shop. Honey, are you going to be okay? Do the police have any idea who did it?” As Phoebe let go of Rhea, her gaze fixed on the box of condoms still in Rhea’s hand.

  Cheeks flaming, Rhea tossed the condoms onto the coffee table.

  Phoebe’s eyebrows lifted with amusement. “Am I...interrupting something? Cowgirl?”

  Rhea rolled her eyes and flopped onto the couch. “Not exactly.”

  “Uh-oh.” Phoebe joined her after taking off her coat and tossing it over the armrest. “Did you guys have a fight?”

  “No. I just took too long getting condoms. He fell asleep.”

  “Oh, boy. Amateur. You’re supposed to keep those in stock.”

  “You don’t say.” Rhea put her fur-clad feet up on the coffee table and crossed one boot over the other.

  “Damn, those are cute.” Phoebe tugged on one of the pompons dangling from the decorative ties. “When did you get those?”

  “Theia gave them to me for our birthday last year.” Rhea frowned, remembering their last gift exchange. Theia had bought them so Rhea would have something to wear in the winter when she moved up to Flag with her, which had been the plan at the time.

  “She’s over at my place, by the way.”

  Rhea glanced up. “What’s she doing there?”

  “She had a dream you were in trouble. She knew you wouldn’t talk to her, so she came to me.” Phoebe nudged Rhea’s foot with her own on the coffee table. “And it’s officially Christmas Eve as of twenty minutes ago.”

  Rhea blinked at her. “No, it’s not. It was just...” The winter solstice had been on the twenty-second this year. And that had been yesterday. Or, rather, the day before, since it was now after midnight on the twenty-fourth. “When does Yuletide end?”

  “Yuletide?”

  “The original Germanic Yuletide. How long is it?”

  “Why would I know?”

  Rhea reached for the bag that held her tablet before remembering she didn’t have one anymore. “Dammit.” She grabbed her phone instead and looked up Yuletide, but scanning the first few links yielded several answers. “Damn the stupid internet.”

  “Rhea, what are you looking for?”

  “I need to know how long it lasts. How long he has left.”

  “Who?”

  Rhea stopped thumbing through links. “Leo. There are some things I didn’t tell you the other day. And then I found out some more things.”

  Phoebe leaned in with interest. “What kinds of things?”

  There had never been secrets between the Carlisle sisters. At least not before Theia had started keeping them. But this wasn’t her story to tell. She supposed she could tell her as much as she’d told Ione, though.

  “Leo’s under some kind of spell. His will—his id—is separated from his ego during Yuletide.”

  “Are you talking about his other selves? Like the fylgja?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m talking about. His are fragmented, and because his ritual confinement was interrupted the other night by the fire, he can’t naturally reintegrate. I have to convince him—all of his selves—to come back together before Yuletide ends or his soul and his ego will be lost forever. He’ll be nothing but id. Broken. So I need to figure out when Yuletide ends officially, but it doesn’t look like there’s anything official.” She tossed the phone down, gesturing at the search results. “Could be a couple of days, could be twelve.”

  Phoebe looked thoughtful. “Does this have anything to do with the serpent energy we were talking about?”

  “Maybe. The other Leo—the whole Leo, the one you met the other day—said he thought his munr—his id—would unleash the negative energy of the Midgard Serpent if the ritual was interrupted.” She was so not telling Phoebe about the restraints. She’d never hear the end of it after all her teasing about the sex tape.

  Phoebe caught Rhea’s little hesitation, and her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t press. “Maybe Rafe can figure out the dates for you. He has a Covent Compendium from his father containing a lot of obscure ritual information. Come to think of it, Dev should know if Rafe doesn’t. He was a Covent assayer for years before Ione—”

  “Boned the dragon out of him and got him fired?”

  “She didn’t get him fired. He quit voluntarily.”

  “However she wants to spin it. Anyway, that’s promising. I still have to figure out how to get the soul and the id back together, whenever the deadline is. I had a chance to talk to his hugr tonight, and this is not going to be easy.”

  “Wait, how did you talk to a disembodied soul? That’s my area.”

  “Remember that Wild Hunt I kept seeing?”

  Phoebe’s eyes widened. “You’re kidding. He’s a Hunt wraith?”

  “He’s the Hunt wraith. The Chieftain. Leader of the Hunt.”

  Phoebe’s phone chimed. After glancing at the message, she got up and put her coat back on.

  “That’s Rafe. He’s all by his lonesome in front of the fire.” She grinned. “I just wanted to make sure you were all right. You brat.” She flicked Rhea’s arm as she turned to go, and her gaze fell on the box of condoms. “Hope you get a chance to use those before dinner tomorrow. Today. You know what I mean.” Phoebe paused on her way out the door. “And your bucking bronco is totally invited, in case that wasn’t clear.”

  “Brahma bull.” Rhea groaned as she realized she’d walked right into that one.

  Leo didn’t stir when she climbed into bed beside him. She folded the bedspread over him from the other side, even if he didn’t feel the cold, and got under the covers on her side, snuggling up to him. She left a condom on the nightstand just in case.

  * * *

  Leo opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling once he was sure Rhea was asleep. He should have known something was up when she was gone so long. She’d been with that insufferable hugr, conspiring against him with the bastard who’d chained him up nightly over a thousand Yuletides.

  He rolled over and observed her, silvery pastel strands of hair sticking to cheeks flushed pink with the heat of sleep. He’d believed she’d fallen for him at last, that she wanted him and not that passionless milquetoast who cared about nothing but his uptight morality.

  Leo let his hand hover over her, wanting to pluck the sweat-damp strands from her cheek. The other Leo could never have given her so much pleasure that she fainted in his arms. Wouldn’t have bothered. But the other Leo was the one she wanted: the one too timid to act on his desires, even if they burned inside him as they must if he, the munr, embodied them.

  She had called him broken. The word twisted in his heart like a shard of glass as he’d lain listening to their voices, awakened by the sound of their affectionate banter. The way she was with her sisters made him love her more—desire her more, he amended. A stupid, brutish munr couldn’t love. Rhea had the sort of familial bond he’d never experienced. He barely remembered his life before Kára, but he knew there had been nothing like that.

  The idea of spending a holiday with Rhea and her family, playing at being an ordinary man for a day, was tempting. But Kára had owned him, the hugr had enslaved him for her, and now he was free. There was no way in Hel he was going to be made anyone’s captive again. And certainly not by someone who thought of him as broken.

  He couldn’t stay till morning. If he did, he’d end up making love to her, and then he’d never be able to leave. Just the smell of her skin beside him made him want to give up his freedom just to touch i
t and taste it again. He still smelled of her himself. She was imprinted on his senses. Leo slid quietly off the other side of the bed and gathered his clothes, taking them to the living room to dress.

  On the table in front of the couch was the box of condoms she’d purchased. He’d done enough Googling to know that if he happened to meet someone else to take his mind off Rhea, she’d expect him to have some of these. Leo slid the box into his pocket before slipping quietly out the door.

  Chapter 20

  Leo had gotten up early, apparently, maybe to take a shower. But he wasn’t in the house. Maybe he’d gone out to get breakfast for the two of them. It would be just like him. It was ironic that the munr with no thought-self was more thoughtful than anyone she’d ever dated.

  Then she discovered the box of condoms missing from the table.

  Son of a bitch. He’d really had her fooled, making her think his relentless expression of desire was specific to her, when it was simply that he was desire. She’d left him at home for one night with the internet at his disposal, and he’d gone off to find someone else who maybe wasn’t so difficult.

  It hurt even more that he’d gone off without leaving a note. Not that she had notepaper lying around. But he could have sent her a text. Well, screw him. Now she didn’t have to worry about fixing him, convincing his stupid hugr to make nice and step back inside the skin.

  Rhea stalked to the kitchen and opened the fridge, looking for something to eat. She’d been trying to live on the bare minimum until she got a few clients, and her grocery reserves were dwindling. She had oatmeal, but there wasn’t even enough milk for a bowl of cereal. She supposed she could eat it without.

  As she closed the refrigerator door, Rhea let out a yelp. “Dammit, Vixen. Have you ever considered knocking?”

  The Valkyrie pulled her fur coat tight around her. “It’s dreadfully cold in here. And there is no Vixen, darling. I made her up.” She sniffed and looked offended. “Now, then. Care to tell me what the hell you’ve done to Leo?”

  “Who says I’ve done something to him?”

  “He was your responsibility. And now he’s gone. Do you think I wouldn’t be able to tell? I took him from the battlefield. I am attuned to the rhythm of his breathing and his heart. I know where the body is and what he’s doing with it at all times.”

  Rhea rubbed at her neck. “All times?”

  Faye smiled knowingly. “He’s quite talented, isn’t he? Sadly, I have never had the pleasure of experiencing his talents when the munr alone embodied the skin, but I did teach the skin itself.”

  “Okay. Too much information.” Rhea leaned back against the fridge with her arms folded. “So what’s he doing with it? Shouldn’t you know where he is?”

  “I know where he is. It’s why he’s there instead of here with you that I wish to know. How do you intend to bring his selves together if you’ve driven him off? And how on earth did you manage to do so after the pleasure he’d given you?”

  “Okay, look. We are not doing this. You are way too interested in my sexual intimacy with Leo.” And it was weird how Faye wasn’t the least bit bothered by it. “I don’t know why he left. I woke up and he was gone. He fell asleep last night while I was out getting condoms.”

  An expression of pure surprise lit Faye’s features before her entire being seemed to explode into delighted laughter. “You thought you were going to get a mindless munr to wear a condom. No wonder he left. A munr does not care to have its pleasure compromised.”

  “Oh, really? Then why did he take the box of condoms with him while I was sleeping?”

  Faye’s eyebrows rose comically. “Did he really? How peculiar. He also took your car.”

  “What?” Rhea ran to the window and looked out. Her spot was empty. Tears of frustration burned behind her eyes. She had four years of car payments left.

  “There’s a simple remedy,” said Faye when Rhea let the curtain fall. “Report the car stolen. When he’s apprehended, you can collect him.”

  “Collect him? He’s not a piece of property.”

  “But he is your responsibility.”

  “Why the hell is he my responsibility? You’re the one who did this to him. Why don’t you go ‘collect’ him?”

  Faye looked wounded. “That is part of the price I paid to spare his life. I cannot affect his will. I ride with the wraith, though he does not know me. But I cannot be with him when only the munr inhabits the skin. Only when he is whole can I interact with him and have him see me for who I am.”

  “So that’s what this is about. You want me to put him back together so you can be with him.”

  Faye shrugged, though the gesture seemed to belie some deeper emotion. “See it how you will. The fact remains that you are the one who released him—”

  “My shop was on fire. Should I have let him burn with it?”

  Faye fluffed her collar. “He cannot burn. He would have felt it, but it would not have damaged him.”

  “Oh, well, that would have been just fine, then. Let him experience burning to death.”

  “The greater issue is that you’ve left his hugr vulnerable to attack.”

  “So you’ve said. You know, I spoke to his hugr last night. And he was an insufferable bore.”

  A half smile lifted the corner of her mouth. “He is...single-minded.”

  “You keep saying his hugr is vulnerable to attack. From whom? The Norns?”

  “Oh, no. Wyrd and her sisters prefer to stay far above the fray, maintaining their fiction of blamelessness, all the while weaving and cutting capriciously.” Faye’s eyes flashed with anger. “His enemies are those who seek to undermine the Hunt itself. Many have come through the ages, intent on overthrowing him as Chieftain, but while his body and his munr remained bound to him, they could not harm him. Now, thanks to you, he is fair game.” Faye gave her a reproachful look. “And now you’ve lost his body. I suggest you make that report and get back what belongs to both of us.”

  Rhea opened her mouth to object, but Faye had apparently said all she intended to and was simply gone.

  Despite the Valkyrie’s insistence, she couldn’t bring herself to get Leo arrested. She’d have to report the car stolen eventually, but it seemed like a betrayal of trust to use the police to track him down. Maybe she was being a fool. He’d betrayed her trust first. But she wasn’t going to have Leo thrown in jail—shackled again—on Christmas Eve.

  Anyway, how did she know Faye was even telling her the truth? She’d revealed her true motive for reuniting Leo’s selves. She wanted him for her own selfish purposes, just as she had when she’d interfered with the course of his life a thousand years ago. These “enemies” she claimed were after him didn’t sound all that credible.

  When she called Phoebe later to tell her she couldn’t make it to Christmas Eve dinner, Phoebe wouldn’t have it. Rhea had made up a story about her car being in the shop, and before she knew it, Phoebe was at her door to pick her up.

  “Don’t think I don’t know what this is about,” she said when Rhea answered the door. “You’re avoiding Theia. But it’s Christmas Eve and this has gone far enough. Get Leo and let’s go.”

  Rhea hugged her arms. “He’s not here.”

  “What do you mean, he’s not here? Where is he?”

  “He left.”

  “That’s all you’re going to tell me?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Okay, well, you have two choices—tell me and you can stay here and sulk, or get your butt in the car. And tell me later.”

  “You’re really going to let me stay here if I tell you?”

  Phoebe rolled her eyes. “Are you high? It’s Christmas.” She pointed to her Jeep in the parking lot. “March.”

  After exchanging the sweatshirt for a more festive chartreuse and f
uchsia vintage sweater set from the ’80s and running some sculpting cream through her hair, Rhea reluctantly got into the Jeep, rubbing her arms through her coat sleeves. “Who drives a Jeep in the snow?”

  “It’s not snowing at the moment. And it’s not like the top is open.”

  “It’s a lot like the top is open. Your windows are made out of vinyl.”

  “Stop stalling. What happened to Leo?”

  “Oh, so this is ‘later,’ is it?”

  Phoebe grinned as she pulled the Jeep out onto the highway. “Yep. And now you’re my captive, so we’re driving around until you tell me.”

  Rhea sighed. “There’s nothing to tell. I woke up this morning and he was gone.”

  “That’s it?” Phoebe glanced at her. “You didn’t have a fight or anything?”

  “Nope. Just gone. I have no idea when he left. Woke up about nine o’clock and there was no Leo, no note and no condoms.”

  “No.” Phoebe nearly pulled the Jeep over. Rhea could only imagine what her sister would have done if she’d mentioned the car. “That is just evil.”

  * * *

  Phoebe’s house was a winter wonderland. In addition to a plethora of lights and a nine-foot tree, luminarias lit the walkway, and a host of marvelous smells struck Rhea as Phoebe opened the door. Cinnamon and cloves from the mulled cider mixed with the scent of fresh pine and the mesquite wood burning in the fireplace, while scented candles in peppermint and caramel apple and pumpkin pie perched on every surface.

  Rhea was the last to arrive. Dev’s and Rafe’s impressive forms dominated the kitchen, where they were busy adding their family specialties to the feast—in matching Hello Kitty aprons that had to be Phoebe’s doing. Ione and Theia sat cross-legged by the fire taking turns petting Puddleglum, stretched on the hearth between them like feline royalty. And Phoebe, true to form, had the classic Christmas carols from their childhood playing on her sound system.

  Rhea tried studiously not to look in Theia’s direction, but the ranch house was too small to accommodate acting like a child. She sat in the coveted papasan chair, temporarily empty, as Ione got up to help Dev with something in the kitchen.