Dragons Prefer Blondes

by Candace Havens

  Jake stood with his hands clasped behind his back as if he were at ease in some military lineup.

  His face was a mask of nonchalance. I couldn’t tell if he cared a bit about anything I had to say.

  I continued on. “Maybe you’ve noticed, my temper flashes kind of hot at times. I say things I don’t mean. Hurtful things.”

  He didn’t move or even acknowledge he heard me. Hardheaded—

  Before I even thought about it, I reached up and kissed him. Right there in the middle of the weapons room. I’m sure he was shocked at first, because it took a few seconds for him to respond, but then he did.

  His lips took control, soft and yet strong at the same time, as if his purpose was to make certain I knew I’d been kissed.

  His hands snaked around my waist, pulling me tight into his body. I fit as if I were ready-made for him. Warm and safe. I lost myself in him. Someone coughed behind me, and Jake’s head lifted away from mine. I wanted to draw him back.

  “Didn’t know this was make-out central,” Gilly said from the doorway. “I just need to get my rapier, and I’ll get out of your way.”

  “I—we—I,” I stammered. The words refused to form.

  “I can see what you’re doing. Like I said, don’t stop on my account.” She slid open the cabinet door where her sword was. “Okay. I’m all good. See you two later.” She pushed the button on her watch and stepped through the portal that formed.

  “She must be going to Maunra.” I finally managed to get a sentence out.

  “Looks like.”

  “Well, I—yes. Well. I came to apologize and to tell you that your job isn’t, and never has been, in any jeopardy. That was rude and insensitive of me.”

  I moved away to the cabinets to grab my crossbow. My fingers shook so much I almost dropped it. Jake came up behind me and shut the cabinet door.

  “Alex.” The way he whispered my name made my body warm even more.

  “Yes?”

  “You forgot your comm.” Instead of just handing it to me, he pushed the hair away from my ear. Peeling the paper away from the sticky area, he pushed the thing behind my ear. Then his fingers trailed down my jaw.

  I tried to pretend like it was no big deal, but I couldn’t keep my traitorous body from trembling. “Thanks.” My voice sounded like I’d just drunk a shot of whiskey.

  “You’re welcome.”

  I stepped away again. “Okay then. I’m going to Montreal. I want to talk to Mr. McMurphy.”

  “Tell him I said hello.”

  “Sure. Well, you have a good evening.”

  Have a good evening? What the hell is wrong with you? You just kissed the man, and he sent you into overdrive.

  I touched the tattoos together before I could make a bigger fool out of myself.

  CHAPTER 18

  My mind wasn’t as focused as it should have been, and I skidded on my ass just behind the pub. Thank goodness no one witnessed the sudden arrival. I’d meant to land in the downstairs bar area.

  This is what happens when you get all googly over some guy. I brushed the snow off and took a look around. The door was locked, so I knocked. I could hear someone coming, but it wasn’t an old man’s shuffle. Sliding the crossbow from the harness, I held it behind my back.

  The locks clicked open, and my body tensed. At first I didn’t recognize the woman who opened the door. She was tall with short auburn hair that hit at her chin, and she was dressed in an expensive leather jacket and pants.

  “Oy,” she yelled behind her, “we’ve got company.” Her eyes glanced to the weapon behind me, and she smiled. “I’d say it’s one of your Guardian friends, Uncle.”

  “Come in, lass, come in out of the cold,” Mr. McMurphy said from the darkness.

  The woman stepped aside and waved me in.

  “I’m Siobhan,” she said as I passed. “We haven’t seen each other since we were teens.” There had been a council meeting where all young Guardians of a certain age were inducted into service. Back then her hair had been waist-length and curly. She held out her hand, and I shook it. “And you would be Alex, if I read the trashy magazines correctly. I don’t, of course”—she winked—“read those things.”

  “Good to see you,” I told her as I put the crossbow back in the harness.

  As my eyes adjusted, I found Mr. McMurphy stitching the shoulder of another woman. This one had long, straight, coffee-colored hair with blonde streaks, which had been shoved to the side so he could sew up the long gash on her back. “Ouch,” I whispered.

  “We were tracking a couple of Rusalki who were causing trouble in Malta. They jumped to Greenland, which is where we finally caught up with them.”

  Rusalki were a nasty version of water nymphs.

  “Gammy bitches.” The woman being stitched turned her head so she could see me. “I’m Niamh. Good to see ya.”

  “We stepped into a trap of about thirty of them, and Niamh caught a claw there at the end.”

  “Not used to fighting in water so cold it freezes your bones.” She grimaced as Mr. McMurphy finished the last stitch. “I’ll stick with my damn snakes in the jungle.” Talk about nasty, Niamh was responsible for ridding our planet of Figonas. They were serpentlike fairies, which were probably the original serial killers. No souls. I’d take my dragons over that any day.

  “We left none behind, so I’d say it was a good day,” Siobhan added. “I noticed Nim was a bit gee-eyed, and since we were close, thought I’d see if Uncle could mend her. We’d also heard a rumor that there was a club nearby where evil liked to play.”

  I wondered how they’d heard about Bells, which was supposed to be a big secret, according to my mother. “So much for the council keeping that under wraps.” I turned my attention to Mr. McMurphy, who grinned. “I was here to see you about the same thing. It’s protected by the same kind of magic this place is, and I wondered if you had something to do with that?”

  He made a show of putting his instruments away. “If I did or didn’t, ’tis of no concern to you, lass.”

  Cagey old man.

  “Uncle, no disrespect, but if you are protecting evil, I, for one, would like to know.” Siobhan clasped her hands behind her back and rocked on her heels. “Perhaps you’d like to share with us what you know? That way I won’t have to kill you, which would surely piss off the rest of the family, especially Mum. Can’t say why, but she seems a bit partial to ya.”

  He slid his body onto one of the wooden barstools. It took me a minute, but I noticed the place had been cleaned up. The musty smell was gone, along with the dust. “None of your business, nosy lasses.”

  Before we could protest, he held up a hand. “I’m telling ya for your own good that you needn’t be concerned.”

  We all stared at him.

  “Fine. ’Tis my magic, but it’s not protecting so much as containing. Does that satisfy your curiosity?”

  “Not really. I know you helped the mages, but I was curious why you let me think you were some low-level guy.” I frowned at him. None of this added up. Was it possible this kind old man who had saved my life was actually one of the Manteros? “This place is also protected by really powerful magic. Yours. You let me think it had been done by someone else.”

  Siobhan sighed. “He doesn’t like to brag, which is strange for an Irishman. My uncle is one of the most powerful mages in the universe. Though he turned away from the craft when my aunt died. Couldn’t save her and blamed himself. Bloody crime, if you ask me. Giving up on magic.”

  He pointed an accusing finger at her. “Lass, shut that trap of yours. I’m an old man and have every right to retire.”

  “Only you’ve been called back into service,” I said, finally catching on to what was really happening around that club.

  “Yes. The council asked for my help with a specific spell, and I obliged. I’ve been asked not to talk about it, so that’s all you’ll be getting out of me.” He crossed his arms against his chest.

  “I don’t need to know
specifics, but there’s something wrong with it. The spell around the club, that is.”

  “What do you mean?” Siobhan asked. “Uncle’s magic is foolproof.”

  I turned to look at her. “That may be, but from what my mother told me, Bells is supposed to keep evil inside. It’s a way for the council to keep tabs on what’s happening. There’s even a portal within to make sure they don’t have to go outside.

  “The problem is”—I faced Mr. McMurphy again—“those dragons from the other night showed up out of the blue. They found a way out and took those women with them.”

  “ ’Tis not possible.” The old man frowned. “The exits are bound. They had to have come in from another portal.”

  I shook my head. “No. My guys would have seen them if they’d come from somewhere else. One minute they weren’t there, and the next they were. Showed up in the middle of the street.

  “I can’t be sure, but there is a possibility the Manteros are involved. They may have found a way, if not through your magic, then around it. I know that the dragons took the women out of that club, because one of the women told me she’d been there.

  “The potion you gave her didn’t fully erase her memory, and she knew exactly where they’d been that night. Except she had no idea how they left Bells. One minute she remembered seeing the green dragon, the next they were out in the snow. They must have drugged them and then pulled them out somehow.”

  “Doesn’t make sense,” Niamh interjected. She’d pulled her knees up in the chair. “Why would they come out and risk exposure? Why not just go through the portal inside the club so they wouldn’t be seen on our radars?”

  “That’s the question of the day, isn’t it.” I knew Mr. McMurphy had the answer. Whether he’d share it was another thing entirely.

  We all looked to him.

  Deep in thought, he scratched his chin. “ ’Twould be impossible to transport human cargo through a portal inside the club. It would mean an instant death sentence to the gent who runs it. That, and the patrons aren’t allowed to kill humans within the walls. The only two rules, as a matter of fact.”

  The gent was most likely Graves. That may have been why he saved me that night.

  “So how are they getting outside?” I asked.

  “I won’t know until I go there, now, will I?” He moved to the bar.

  “No.” We all said it at the same time.

  “You aren’t going anywhere near that place, Uncle,” Niamh said.

  “Of course I am.” He shook a finger at her. “You know as well as anyone that I can take care of myself. I may be old, but I’m not feeble.”

  I stifled a laugh, pretending to cough.

  “None of that, you,” he admonished.

  “Sorry. I had something in my throat.”

  “I say we all go.” Niamh stood and put her leather coat back over her shoulders.

  Siobhan started to say something but checked herself. If it were me, I’d probably ask my sister to sit this one out so she could heal, and I had a feeling that was what she was about to do. Of course, if I tried to leave my sisters out of a fight, they’d kick my ass. Niamh didn’t look the type to back down from anything.

  “I’m ready, but you two need to know something. We Guardians are not allowed to interfere within the confines of the club.” The women frowned. “Of course, if someone were to, uh, accidentally trip and fall out a door onto the street, then all bets are off. Then we can do whatever the hell we want.”

  Siobhan patted me on the shoulder. “Cheeky girl. I like you.”

  The walls were thumping, which in the club world is a good thing. The louder the music, the more people dance. The more people dance, the more they drink. It was how we made money.

  We stood in a side alley with Mr. McMurphy as he checked the spells binding the place. The magic rolling off of him was more than I’d seen when my mom and Aunt Juliet were working together. His niece hadn’t lied about his talents. That he’d been able to mask that much magic from me made me want to train my senses to be more in tune with anything that made my spine tingle. With Manteros running around, we all needed to be more aware of things, especially people, not being who they really were.

  He shook his head. “There’s nothing here that would let an otherworldly being through. It’s tight as a drum.” Reaching into his pocket, he walked to the back door and threw out what looked like dust, except it sparkled and flared as it hit the magical knots.

  “My, my, what have we here?” Squinting his eyes, he took a closer look. The dust seemed to settle around tiny black spots, splattered throughout. He knelt down, and I heard his knees crack as he sprinkled another handful of the dust. This time footprints became visible. Only for a split second, but they were there.

  “What is it?” Siobhan asked the question on all of our minds.

  “Tracks, lass. Evil magic breaking through pretending to be something it isn’t.”

  Niamh and I looked at each other and shrugged. Siobhan reached down to help him back up. “I’m not understanding you, Uncle.”

  “The lass”—he threw a thumb my way—“said the Manteros were involved. I would guess ’tis their spell the monsters are using. Masks them as humans.” He held up his hand and mumbled some Latin. His hands wove intricate knots, and the air around us moved as if a small tornado had just touched down. “That will no longer be a problem. Won’t be any more shenanigans against my magic.” Mr. McMurphy sounded angry. From the clenched fists at his sides, I figured he wasn’t so happy about the Manteros slipping through the binding spell.

  “So what do we do now?” Siobhan looked at me.

  “I plan on going inside to have a look around.” I winked at them. “I mean, the council wants to gather information. I should probably try to help.”

  They laughed. “I’ll take Uncle home, and then I’ll join you,” said Niamh.

  “Oh, no.” He picked her hand off of his arm. “Someone needs to keep an eye on you, lass. I’m not going anywhere. Besides, I can help. If three Guardians walk in, you’re sure to be noticed. The Manteros are not the only ones who can do a masking spell.”

  He had a point.

  “Fine,” I said. “We all go in, but let’s do it one at a time.” I pointed to the old man. “You, put a whammy on us so that we come off as fairies or something. I don’t want them to know we’re coming.”

  His hands moved to his hips. “I don’t think I’ll be taking orders from you, young lass. Perhaps you’d like to ask me a touch more kindly?”

  I scrunched up my face. “Sorry. I seem to be offending people at an alarming rate tonight. Please, Mr. McMurphy, can you help a girl out?”

  He smiled. “Aye, lass, I can.” He waved his arms over me, and I could feel the magic surround me.

  “Let me guess,” Siobhan chimed in, “you want to be first.”

  “Well, it was my idea.” I grinned as I slipped through the back door.

  CHAPTER 19

  The heat inside the club was stifling, and again I was assailed by the varying stench of Fae and other creatures. As I eyed the crowd, it dawned on me that they were all pretending to be human. They had to in order to fit in on Earth.

  Thankfully, there weren’t many humans in the packed house. In fact, if my spidey sense was on point, there were only a few in the back rooms. Most likely they were trying to make a little extra cash by getting freaky with the Fae.

  I found an alcove close to the bar that gave me a good view of the main room.

  The dance floor was packed with writhing bodies getting hot with a techno groove. In just a few days, Graves had already made improvements. The dark purple walls had been redone in a pewter shade that gave everything a silver glow. The wooden tables had been painted black, and theatrical lighting had been added, giving the area over the bar a dramatic wash of light.

  While the club looked more respectable, the patrons were no less freaky. Every kind of fetish, hair color, piercing, well, it looked like a good night at my club in Lon
don. I’ve always been about flying the freak flag high and proud as long as no one got hurt.

  In fact, I made it a point in my employee training that we didn’t judge. No drugs or sex in the clubs, but we were as open-minded as possible.

  “Slumming?” I jumped when the voice whispered in my ear.

  Graves stood beside me.

  “It’s you.”

  He gave me that Clooney grin. “And—it’s you. Well, a pretend you. What’s with the magic?”

  “I’m looking for someone; go away.”

  “What, you don’t want to throw me up against the wall and kill me? My heart breaks.” He put a fist to his chest.

  “Ha. That’s how Mira gets her kicks. I’m more subtle.”

  He laughed. “Guardian, you are never subtle.”

  I shrugged. “How did you know I was here?”

  “I sensed strange magic. Had to make sure you weren’t someone trying to break the rules.”

  “So you know about the Manteros.”

  He held a finger to his lips. “They are everywhere, and they listen well.”

  “How did you get involved in all this?”

  Casually, he leaned against the wall opposite me. “I certainly didn’t do it by choice. I saw the club as an investment. The day I bought it, your mother showed up with her proposition.” No one ever said no to my mother. “I wasn’t happy with the idea, but she didn’t give me much of a choice. The money this place makes, well, I’ve never been one to turn away from wealth, so it almost makes up for the fact that the council has turned me into a spy.”

  “But aren’t you working on the wrong side? What if your fairy friends find out?”

  He looked out into the club. “The ones who matter would understand. This evil, or whatever it is perverting the universe, is no friend to anyone I know. If I can provide any service to the cause of good, then I’m more than happy to oblige.”

  “So you’re saying there are varying degrees of evil, and you’re at the lesser end of that?”