Fire Song (City of Dragons)

by St. Crowe, Val

  “Oh, that can’t be true,” said Brody’s mother. “That’s far too dangerous. Of course, it is terrible that those dragons built their houses there. Our family used to care for a lighthouse there for the mage family we served.”

  Gargoyles had been created by mages, using dragon sacrifice, the most powerful of magics, to be as strong as dragons and protect them from retaliation. It was only sixty years ago that gargoyles had been emancipated from mages and given status as citizens. Since they were tied by magic to the houses they inhabited, they had been a largely ignored magical race for centuries.

  “Tell them you wouldn’t do such a thing, Brody,” said one of his sisters.

  “Um…” came a voice. “I did start the protests. Fat lot of good it did, though.”

  “So, you were angry at the dragons,” said Flint. “Weren’t you?”

  “Yeah,” said Brody.

  “Did I say you could answer that question?” said Brody’s mother sharply.

  “Sorry, Mom.”

  “Angry enough to kill?” said Flint.

  “What?” said Brody’s mother, horrified.

  “What?” said Brody. He pushed between two of his sisters. “I never hurt anyone.”

  “Dragon girls keep washing up on the beach,” said Flint. “Dragon girls who live in that housing development.”

  “Hey, I have no idea who lives in the housing development,” said Brody.

  “Brody!” admonished his mother. “You keep your mouth shut. You know how these police will twist your words.”

  “Do you happen to know where you were on February twelfth?” said Flint. “Might not be significant, but it’s the last day that anyone saw Sophia Ward alive.”

  “I have no idea,” said Brody. “What day of the week was that?”

  “A Friday.”

  “He was probably with Gina,” said one of Brody’s sisters. “They’re together a lot these days.”

  “Oh, if he is not with us, and not at work, he is with Gina,” said Brody’s mother.

  “Gina who?” said Flint.

  “You’re not going to talk to her, are you?” said Brody. “Leave Gina out of this.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  We were on our way to talk to Gina, who was another gargoyle who lived across town.

  As we drove, I explained gargoyle culture to Flint. “They have a matriarchal society,” I said. “The family group is organized around the mother, the grandmother. It’s not until the oldest female’s death that the family begins to branch off into smaller units.”

  “Okay, I get that,” he said, gripping the steering wheel as we sped down Atlantic Avenue, the main strip of highway that went up and down the coast. On one side of us, twenty-story hotels blocked out the ocean. On the other side, restaurants and strip malls lit the night. “What I don’t get is why they wouldn’t let him talk.”

  “They think men live in a state of perpetual childhood,” I said. “They don’t trust men to own property or to have any say over major decisions. Those are all taken care of by the matriarch.”

  “So, men are just second-class citizens?”

  “Well…” I shrugged. “I’m sure there are human men who wouldn’t complain about living a gargoyle lifestyle. The men basically have no responsibilities besides impregnating females. They can have sex with whoever they want with no expectations of commitment, because they don’t ever leave their mother’s houses. Gargoyles don’t pair bond like us. Women raise their babies in the matriarch’s home, along with their brothers. All the children stay with their mothers until she dies.”

  “Like orca whales,” said Flint in a thoughtful voice.

  “Is it?” I said.

  He nodded. “And I don’t think it would work for human men.”

  “Why do you say that?” I said.

  “Because that isn’t how men are wired,” he said. “Men do everything that they do in order to provide for these so-called responsibilities you think we want to flee from. Life isn’t worth living to a man if he doesn’t have a family.”

  “Do you have a family?”

  His jaw twitched. “It’s just basic psychology.”

  “Maybe gargoyles are different.”

  “The gargoyle who works for you? He’s gay, right? How’s that work?”

  “It doesn’t. If he’s not mating with women, he’s basically useless to the society. A burden. His grandmother kicked him out. He lives with me now.”

  “You took him in?”

  “I couldn’t let him live on the street.”

  He didn’t say anything for several minutes. When he did, he’d changed the subject. “You could have told me this gargoyle stuff before we went in to interrogate that guy.”

  “You didn’t ask.”

  “Didn’t know I should,” he said. “There anything I should know before we talk to the girlfriend?”

  “She’s not his girlfriend,” I said. “There’s no expectation of monogamy in gargoyle culture.”

  “Right,” he said. “No one cares who the baby’s father is, so there’s no reason for it.”

  “That’s not the only reason for monogamy,” I said.

  “No, I realize that. Pairing off is good for very helpless offspring. That’s the reason men are wired to want to take care of their responsibilities. Better for the species survival.”

  “I never thought about that,” I said.

  There was a red light. He pulled the car to a stop and turned to me. “You’re not going to argue with me about that, tell me I’m being unromantic, I don’t suppose. After your history, you no longer believe in romance.”

  I looked out the window. There was a sliver of sea and sky visible between two hulking, shadowy hotels. “It’s not like that for dragons. It’s not romance.”

  “So, what is it?” he said.

  “Biology,” I said. “It’s very difficult for dragons to conceive and carry full term, so in order to ensure that, we evolved to be very, very attached to our mates.”

  “But does that make sense?” he said. “Wouldn’t having multiple partners like the gargoyles make the chances of conception better?”

  “Evolution doesn’t always make sense. It keeps on because it works, not because it’s the best way to do things. It just has to be serviceable until a better mutation happens along.”

  The light turned green. The car started to move again.

  I sighed. “I guess you’re right. I used to believe in destiny, that there was something magic and pure about finding one’s mate. But now I think…” I turned back to look at him, abruptly shifting topics. “I don’t understand how the police department in this city could be so clueless about magical creatures. Sea City is like the magic capital of the east coast.”

  “Magic scares humans,” he said. “They don’t understand it. It frightens them. They’d rather not waste a lot of time thinking about what frightens them, so they try to sweep it under the rug and ignore it.”

  “It doesn’t scare you?”

  “Sure it does. But I’ve got murders to solve, and I feel blind half the time trying to navigate here. The creatures here, I don’t understand them. You know, we could pay you as a consultant. Not a lot of money, but something.”

  “I don’t need money.”

  “Right. You bought a hotel with cash.” He pulled the car into a turning lane and put the blinker on.

  We had arrived at where Gina worked.

  *

  Gina the gargoyle was in a maid’s uniform, which figured. She wouldn’t be doing a service job that put her out and about in front of paying customers. She might scare them off.

  Gargoyles weren’t in as bad a position as drakes that way. They were much nicer to look at, for one thing. Most of them were beautiful, like stone angels with chiseled features and figures. But they were still… odd. That meant that they were still shunted out of sight for the most part.

  She told us that she only had a few minutes or she’d get behind. She had a lot of cleaning to do that
night.

  “This shouldn’t take too long,” said Flint. “We’re here about Brody Ross.”

  “Brody?” she said. “Did he do something wrong? Because I was always telling him that those protests of his were a bad idea. Just so dangerous, you know? Everyone hates dragons and all, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”

  “Would you say he hates dragons?” said Flint.

  “Everyone hates dragons,” she repeated.

  I shifted on my feet. Everyone?

  “Anyway, I haven’t seen him in months,” she continued. “We hooked up a few times, but then he stopped coming around.”

  “Months?” said Flint. “How many months?”

  She shrugged. “Uh… I don’t know. Maybe since November?”

  “So, you weren’t with him on February twelfth?” said Flint.

  “No, no way,” she said. Inside her apron, her phone vibrated. Without thinking about it, she fished it out and checked the screen.

  “Could you wait a minute before you do that?” said Flint.

  Her eyes had gotten wide, the size of saucers. “Um, what day did you say again? Because the thing is, I did see Brody recently.”

  Flint made a sour face. “He just texted you and asked you to lie for him, didn’t he?”

  “No,” she said too quickly. “That’s… that’s ridiculous.”

  Flint held out his hand. “Let me see your phone.”

  She stuffed it back in her apron. “I don’t have to give you my phone. I’m fairly sure you can’t just take things from me.”

  Flint folded his arms over his chest.

  She chewed on her lip. “Are you going to arrest him now? What did he do?”

  “We don’t know if he did anything,” said Flint. “But since he’s obviously trying to hide something, I have to ask. Have you ever seen him be violent? Do you think he would be capable of killing someone?”

  “What?” said Gina. “No, that’s not Brody at all. He’s a nice guy. You can’t seriously think that he’s a murderer.”

  “Well, he’s not doing himself any favors by not cooperating,” said Flint, sighing.

  CHAPTER SIX

  After Flint dropped me off, I went for a walk on the beach, just trying to gather my thoughts. I wondered if an angry gargoyle really could have killed those two girls. Brody hadn’t seemed guilty, but what did I know about that kind of thing?

  I thought about what Gina had said, that everyone hated dragons, and I wondered if it were true. To everyone else, dragons probably did seem scary, I guessed. We had strong magic, and it was innate. We made the magic just by existing. We could shift into strong creatures who could fly, who could breathe fire.

  But it wasn’t as awful as the stories made it out. We weren’t nearly as huge as some of the legends, for instance. When we shifted into dragon form, we tended to be about as tall as we were as humans. Of course, we also had tails and big wingspans, so we were formidable in size. But we weren’t the size of whales or something.

  And we had limitations. We could only use our magic if we’d shifted into dragon form within the past two weeks or so. We could also drain our magic if we used it too fast, meaning that we’d have to shift again to get more. And we could only shift in water.

  The compulsion was something that really freaked people out. Being able to look into someone’s eyes and tell them what to do and have them obey without question. I could see why that was terrifying. But it only worked when we were in the presence of someone. All our magic was like that, in fact. If we weren’t close, we couldn’t affect someone. And the compulsion only worked on utterly unmagical beings, which was why even having a small talisman on your person would protect you from compulsion.

  Still, I supposed it might be true that people did hate us.

  Most dragons were wealthy. There was a rumor that we had a magical connection to wealth and treasure, that we were driven to hoard it. It wasn’t true. Dragons were wealthy for the same reason most people were wealthy. The wealth had been passed down over generations.

  But did everyone hate dragons?

  If the people around me were to find out, would they hate me?

  Because if it wasn’t an angry gargoyle that had killed those girls, but Alastair and he got locked up, there would be no reason for me to hide anymore. I could let everyone know what I was.

  I guessed, with Alastair out of the way, I could even go back to my old life. Society parties and dragon coming-of-age ceremonies and all of that. But I didn’t think so. Even without the threat of Alastair, I knew I wouldn’t belong with them.

  Not anymore.

  The truth was, I might still technically be a dragon, but I wasn’t like them anymore.

  After my walk, I went back to the hotel.

  As I walked into the lobby, I spotted a man in a leather jacket bent over a brochure, standing by the doorway. The jacket had a skull on the back…

  Oh, hell, no. The vampires were back already?

  I looked around for more of them, gathering up my magic. Maybe this time, I’d breathe some fire. It would wipe out all my magic if I did that, but it might be worth it. Maybe it would scare them all away once and for all.

  There weren’t any other vampires, though.

  The one with the brochure turned slowly. He had slicked-back dark hair. He was smiling.

  I stood my ground, unsure of what happened next. Were the other vampires hiding somewhere? Did they all jump out at once?

  The vampire offered me his hand. “I don’t think we’ve met. My name is Ace Gonzales.”

  I ignored his hand. “Get out.” I said in a bored tone, as if he didn’t unsettle me one bit. One thing I knew for sure was that showing weakness was never a good idea. If you showed your weakness, it got used against you.

  “Oh, now is that fair? We’ve only just met, and you’re already being so rude to me?”

  “Well, I might have been more welcoming if your gang hadn’t been here before you a few times, destroying all my property. That may have put a damper on our burgeoning polite acquaintanceship.”

  “I really have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said. “I do happen to know that there is a problem with gangs in the area and with vandalism. But my organization is here to protect, not destroy.”

  “Sure it is,” I said.

  “Well, someone like you doesn’t need any protecting, do you, Penelope Cooper?”

  “My last name’s Caspian.” I wandered over behind the counter, acting casual, but my heartbeat had sped up.

  Connor was there, looking pale—well, as pale as a gargoyle can look, anyway.

  I gave him a reassuring smile. “Why don’t you take a break, Connor?”

  “I told him to leave,” said Connor, “but he wouldn’t listen, and I didn’t know what to do.”

  “It’s fine.” I smiled wider. “Go ahead.”

  Connor looked back and forth between me and the vampire. “I don’t know, Penny. I think maybe I should stick around,” he said in a low voice. “You might need me.”

  Ace laughed. “I’m not here to hurt your boss, I promise. I’m here to talk business. It’s become clear to me that the way I was going about it before wasn’t the most effective way, so I’ve shifted my approach.”

  I was tempted to just blast him with fire right then. Burn him to a crisp.

  Of course, it probably wasn’t safe to do that inside the hotel. I could end up burning the whole place to the ground. I guessed I wouldn’t be using my pyrokinesis after all.

  “As any good businessman should,” Ace continued, chuckling.

  I had to admit that it felt good to have Connor at my side. I felt stronger as I stared Ace down. “I want you out of here. There’s no approach you could possibly use that would make me pay you one fucking cent.”

  Ace laughed again. He put his fingers to his mouth, feigning shock. “Ooh, the mouth on you, Mrs. Cooper.”

  “I told you,” I said. “My name is Caspian.”

  “Your maide
n name is Caspian.” He approached the front desk and put both his palms down on the counter. “You know, it’s funny, because when my guys came back telling me that you had strong magic, I figured that looking into you would only reveal that you were some kind of mage, one of those pathetic little ladies who bends over a cauldron, boiling down dragon gristle. Imagine my delight when I found out that you were the missing wife of one of the richest business moguls on the east coast.”

  My nostrils flared. So, I guessed I’d just been lucky so far. Flint had been right. It was far too easy to track me, to figure out who I was. “We’re divorced.” I came out from behind the counter. “Do I need to escort you out?”

  “I’m not finished with my proposition,” he said.

  “I’m not interested. So, you know how to dig into a person’s private past and bring up painful memories. What do you want? A medal?”

  “No,” he said. “More like I want you to pay me the going rate for protection of your business and provide me and my boys with a pint of your blood every week.”

  My mouth dropped open. “You think I would give you vermin my blood?”

  He reached out and ran his fingers over my neck. “I could just take it.”

  I slapped his hand away. “Just try it,” I snarled.

  He laughed again. “It’s been a while since I’ve tasted dragon’s blood. And I don’t think I’ve ever had it so fresh. Most of the stuff I get has been frozen, and it’s not the same.”

  “Get. Out. Now.”

  “If you don’t comply with my requests, Mrs. Cooper, I’ll be forced to give your husband a call and tell him exactly where you are.”

  I clenched my hands into fists. I breathed in a lungful of air, and I felt power and heat gathering inside my lungs. Smoke trickled out of my mouth.

  Ace took a step backwards.

  I blew out a bright tongue of fire. It sizzled and crackled in the air, lighting up the room orange and red.