city of dragons 03 - fire magic

by crowe, val st

  “Can’t you just go to the police with what you know?” said Jensen. “Because I don’t really like the sound of this.”

  “The police won’t believe them without proof,” said Felicity. “We have to help them. They’re having a baby.” She turned to Lachlan. “Congrats on finding out it’s yours, by the way.”

  “Thanks,” said Lachlan, grinning.

  “Wait. What?” said Jensen. “I thought he was a vampire.”

  “We don’t know how that happened either,” I said. “Lots of weird magic stuff happening these days, and we don’t understand most of it.”

  “The good news is that Penny and I have a blood bond,” said Lachlan, “so if it’s down to a fight between us and Darla, we might stand a chance.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I read all about blood bond couples in the past, and they were apparently crazy powerful.”

  “Still,” said Felicity, “all you guys have figured out how to do is blow holes in buildings, right? Like when you destroyed the hotel?”

  “We’re better at it now,” I said.

  “Been practicing?” said Felicity.

  “Sort of,” I said. The truth was that we had to share blood to charge up the power, and Lachlan had been hesitant to drink from me since I was pregnant. He didn’t want to weaken me in any way.

  “So, our assets are the blood bond,” said Connor. “Anything else?”

  Lachlan and I exchanged a glance. Neither of us said anything.

  “Okay,” said Connor.

  “This is a bad idea,” said Jensen. “I know you two want to clear your names, but—”

  “We can do this,” said Felicity. “Connor and I actually have been practicing our magic, right?”

  “Yeah, we’re pretty boss if I do say so myself,” said Connor, offering his fist to Felicity.

  She bumped it. “Hells yeah.”

  Connor grinned at me. “We’re in.” He drank some more coffee.

  “You can’t speak for Felicity,” said Jensen.

  “Neither can you,” said Felicity to him. “And, babe, honestly, I’d rather if you weren’t involved in this. You don’t have any magic at all. You never drink dragon blood, so you’d just be there and I’d be worried about you—”

  “I heal,” said Jensen. “I’m pretty hard to kill.”

  “Well, so am I,” said Felicity.

  “None of us are easy to kill,” said Connor.

  “We can use Jensen,” said Lachlan. “And trust me, I know how you feel. If there was some way I could keep Penny out of this—”

  “Don’t even finish that sentence,” I said.

  Lachlan shrugged at Jensen.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  We didn’t figure we’d be able to simply walk through the front door of the Order again, not after the way we’d left things with Darla, and after knocking out Sid and talking to Caleb and all of that.

  And we couldn’t send Felicity or Connor in, because Darla knew who they were as well.

  So, it turned out that Jensen was helpful after all.

  We sent him to the front door and told him to pretend to be a food delivery guy, complete with bags of food from a local restaurant

  Once inside, he’d need to get to the back door the actual delivery guy had told us about and let us in.

  That was where we were waiting.

  Connor was nervously toying with his talisman.

  Felicity kept putting her hair in a ponytail, and then taking it out and putting it back up again, as if she wasn’t satisfied with how she’d put it up the last time.

  Lachlan seemed cool and comfortable, but then he almost always did.

  I just wanted this over.

  “How long has it been?” said Felicity. “He should have been here by now.”

  “Not long,” I said. “Give him time. He might have had to talk himself out of something.”

  “Maybe they could tell right away that he wasn’t what he said he was,” said Felicity. “Maybe they can sense stuff like that in the Order. They’re all really powerful, right?”

  “We don’t really know how it works,” said Lachlan. “But you should try not to worry. He’ll be here.”

  “Oh, God, if something happens to him…” Felicity took her ponytail out again. “He was right. This is a bad idea. I mean, trying to break a serial killer out of a magical prison? That’s crazy.”

  Connor patted her on the shoulder. “It’s going to be okay. We can do this.”

  “Oh, who are we kidding?” she said, smoothing her hair together at the top of her head. “We’re in way over our heads. And now Jensen’s probably being killed or tortured or something.”

  “Try to breathe,” I said.

  “I shouldn’t have let him be part of this,” said Felicity. “I should never have let him.”

  “Think of something else,” said Connor. “Think about all those things you were wanting to ask Penny about the baby shower.”

  “I can’t think about a baby shower at a time like this!” said Felicity.

  “Baby shower?” I said. “I don’t need a baby shower.”

  “You’re having a shower,” said Felicity, glaring at me. “I’ve already starting planning it, and I bought a bunch of candy, so you’re having it. That’s that.”

  I held up my hands in surrender. “Okay, fine. We’re having a shower. Sorry.”

  “I only wanted to ask you about games and things,” said Felicity. “I think they’re hokey and stupid, but I thought maybe you might like doing them, and we need to do something during the shower, since we can’t drink.”

  “You guys could drink,” I said. “I mean, I wouldn’t mind.”

  “And do you want it to be co-ed or not?” said Connor.

  “Well, I want you there,” I said to him. “But aren’t baby showers only for women?” I had stopped going to them after my first miscarriage. It was too painful to watch hopeful, happy pregnant women.

  “They can be for men now too,” said Felicity. “We could have a baby shower barbecue, where it’s men and women and burgers on the grill and then you open all your presents and there are no games.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I guess that’s fine, but who are you even going to invite to this thing?”

  “Well, there are people,” said Felicity. “There’s us, for one thing. And there’s Ophelia.”

  “Yeah,” I said. But I couldn’t think of anyone else.

  “I was going to invite Darla Tell before we found out she was psychotic,” said Felicity.

  And then the door opened. Jensen’s eyes were wide. “Oh, God, this is the door. I was on the other side of the god damned building.”

  Felicity turned and threw her arms around him. “Jensen, baby, you’re okay!”

  Jensen hugged her back, bewildered. “I’m fine. I just got lost is all.”

  “Don’t do that!” said Felicity.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”

  Connor cleared his throat.

  Felicity let go of Jensen and they moved out of the doorway.

  We pushed inside through the door, and Lachlan closed it behind us. We’d come in to a long hallway, lit by overhead drop lighting. The floor was covered in an ornate, antique rug that ran the length of the hallway. The walls were painted gray. It was as if we’d stepped into a different century.

  Lachlan and I took the lead.

  “Come on,” said Lachlan. “There’s a stairwell up here. It’ll be less conspicuous than taking the elevator.”

  “You’d think a place like this would have more security,” said Jensen.

  “Yeah, I get the impression they’re very arrogant,” said Lachlan. “They think their magic is so strong that it protects them from anything.”

  “Honestly, they might not really care,” I said. “If Darla’s corrupt, maybe the whole institution is as well. Maybe they simply collect prisoners to amass power. So keeping people out might not really be a priority.”

  “You
think they’d steal our magic?” said Felicity. “I mean, not that it would be that hard. You just take off my talisman.”

  “All magical creatures have some magic just in their existence,” I said. “That’s what keeps you alive now, even though you technically died.”

  “Right,” said Felicity. “But if they took that magic, would it kill me?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Don’t worry, though. We aren’t going to let them try.”

  “Stairwell,” said Lachlan, coming to a halt in front of it. He tugged the door open and gestured. “After you.”

  I hurried inside and started up the steps. The stairs looked as if they had been carved from stone. It was like climbing a staircase in an ancient castle or something. The outside of this place really didn’t match the inside. It was almost as if they’d put this relic of a building inside the warehouse. But was a thing like that even possible? How much magic would it take to pick up a building and move it? Across the ocean, even? And without anyone noticing?

  Maybe if you were really powerful, you could compel all the people who saw it to forget, but compulsion usually wore off when people weren’t the presence of the one who had compelled them.

  Of course, Alastair had been powerful enough to break the compulsion rules. Maybe Darla was as well.

  We climbed the steps to the second level, none of us speaking.

  When we arrived there, I slowly eased the door open to look outside. I peered out into the hallway, which was nearly identical to the one downstairs. It was empty. “Coast is clear,” I said.

  We started to move forward.

  Movement out of the corner of my eye.

  I froze.

  Lachlan ran into the back of me.

  “Shh,” I said, easing back inside the door. Two women were coming down the hall. I’d never seen them before, but they were dressed in pantsuits. They looked official. They were chattering to each other in some other language. It sounded European.

  I waited until I could no longer hear them speaking.

  Then I pushed the door open a crack to look out again.

  I watched the hallway. Empty.

  I waited.

  Still empty.

  “Okay,” I murmured. “Let’s try this again.”

  We all eased out way out into the hallway. Lachlan and I took the lead again, since we knew our way around this floor. The hallway branched off, and we took the left fork, heading for the prison wing where Caleb was kept.

  When we entered Sid’s area, he was reading a book at his desk.

  We came in quietly.

  Sid looked up. He leaped to his feet, clutched his talisman with one hand, and gestured with his other hand.

  We all toppled backward, knocking into each other like bowling pins.

  “This the guy?” said Connor, grunting.

  “Keep him busy,” said Lachlan, crawling on his knees.

  I went with him.

  Behind us, Felicity struggled to her feet. She unleashed her magic on Sid, picking him up and tossing him behind his desk.

  He landed on the floor with a groan.

  Lachlan and I crawled past Sid’s desk, leaving Felicity and Connor to fight off Sid.

  Once we were into the hallway that led to Caleb’s cell, we got to our feet and walked.

  I was nervous. We’d talked this through, and we assumed that Caleb would have no magic whatsoever, because it had been drained from him by the Order. Without use of the bars, we thought he’d be containable. We’d be more powerful than he was.

  But we were taking a big risk. It was possible that Caleb was lying to us about everything, and that doing this was going to backfire.

  We had to try.

  It was dark in the cell block.

  There was no noise from within Caleb’s cell, and we couldn’t see him.

  Lachlan approached the bars. “Caleb?” he called in a low voice.

  Nothing.

  “What if they moved him?” I whispered. “What if they figured we might come back and try to get him out and they decided to stop us before we could?”

  Lachlan didn’t answer.

  We waited.

  “Caleb?” Lachlan said again. To me, “Little light here, Penny?”

  I pushed magic down my arm, and a small ball of fire appeared in my palm. I held it aloft, a torch. It illuminated the inside of Caleb’s cell. We could see the edge of his desk. His chair. His bed, and it looked empty…

  “Hello.”

  I jumped.

  Caleb had stepped into the circle of light that my fire ball had created. He was grinning, and he looked demented.

  “You want out?” said Lachlan. “You got it.”

  “Just like that?” Caleb said. “You’ll let me go free? After everything I did to you? Really?”

  “We’re getting you out of this cell,” said Lachlan. “I promise you that. And you won’t be going back inside it.”

  Caleb folded his arms over his chest.

  “Let me get this cell door open,” said Lachlan. “I’m going to have to trust you here, though, Caleb. If I do that, it will charge up the bars. Don’t push me into them again.”

  Caleb raised his chin, waiting.

  Lachlan gestured at the catch to the cell, and it opened. The cell door slid open.

  Lachlan stepped back. “Come on, Caleb. Let’s go.”

  Caleb let out a puzzled laugh, but he didn’t need to be told twice. He hurried through the door.

  Immediately, I caught him with my magic, lifting him up off the ground so that he was a few feet off the floor. Now, he could flail all he liked, but he couldn’t get anywhere. “Not so fast,” I said.

  “I knew there was a catch,” said Caleb.

  “We just want to make sure you hold up your end of the bargain,” said Lachlan. “What’s this proof? How do we get it?”

  “The cameras,” said Caleb. “It was all recorded what she did to Alastair. You were right about everything. She wanted more of his power, and she came in here and forced him to shift into a dragon to try to get the rest of it. But whatever she did, it didn’t work right. It killed him, and it did something to her. She was different before.”

  My shoulders sagged. “Those cameras are just for show,” I said. “She told us herself. They’re only here to make you think you’re being watched.”

  “She lied to you,” said Caleb. “They watch the cameras. They know the things that I do when they aren’t around. They’re probably watching right now, so you’d better let me go.”

  “Nice try,” said Lachlan.

  “At least let’s move up the corridor,” said Caleb. “They’ll be coming for us.”

  “Shove him back in the cell, Penny,” said Lachlan. “He doesn’t have any proof after all.”

  “I do!” said Caleb.

  “So where do they keep this footage that these cameras are supposedly recording?” I said.

  “I don’t know,” said Caleb. “How would I know that?”

  Lachlan reached out with one hand and suddenly Caleb’s head twisted in an unnatural way. There was a sickening crack.

  Caleb hung in the air, lifeless.

  “Did you just kill him?” I said, shocked.

  “No,” said Lachlan. “He’s a vampire. How else do you think he was compelling men to be sex slaves?”

  “Oh,” I said. “Right.”

  “Let’s get him out of here,” said Lachlan.

  “Really?” I said.

  “That’s the plan, isn’t it?” he said.

  “Well, we thought he’d have proof, and he doesn’t.”

  “Maybe his testimony will be worth something to the police.”

  * * *

  When we got back to Felicity and Connor, they had Sid splayed against one wall, stuck there spread eagle. He was still conscious, though, and that was good.

  I stalked over to him. “Sid, the cameras. Do they function or not?”

  He stared at me with wide eyes, but he didn’t say anything.
”

  “Sorry,” said Connor. “I’m using magic to keep his throat closed so that he can’t scream.”

  “Let him talk!” I said.

  Connor made a gesture with one hand.

  Sid started yelling.

  “Stop that,” I said. “I will breathe fire and burn you.”

  Sid stopped.

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “The cameras. Real?”

  “Of course they’re real,” he gasped. “Why would we put up fake cameras?”

  “So there’s footage of everything that happens in those cells?” I said.

  “Sure,” he said.

  “And no one told us this when we were trying to figure out how Alastair was killed?” said Lachlan.

  “Well, he wasn’t killed here,” said Sid.

  “How do we get to the footage?” I said.

  “Computer,” said Sid. “They’re all saved on the network drive. But you need a password, and I’m never going to give you mine.”

  I breathed out a tongue of fire. It stopped short of Sid’s face, singeing his nose.

  He let out a hoarse cry.

  “The password,” I said.

  “It’s 15641616,” said Sid.

  “Shakespeare’s dates?” said Lachlan.

  “What?” said Sid.

  “Those are the dates that Shakespeare was born and died,” said Lachlan.

  “Okay,” said Sid. “I don’t set the passwords.”

  “Does that matter?” I said, glaring at Lachlan.

  He shrugged.

  “This computer right here?” I said, pointing. “Is it going to work here?”

  “Let me do it,” said Connor. “I’m good with this stuff. You keep Sid here up against the wall.”

  I nodded. “Okay, fine.” I traded places with Connor, and found myself standing next to Felicity, who was holding her talisman and glaring at Sid. “You okay?” I said to her.

  “Fine,” she said.

  I reached out with my magic, and I realized that she was bearing the brunt of holding Sid in place, only leaving a few augmentations for Connor. I took over, giving her a much-needed break.

  She let out a slow breath. “Thanks,” she whispered.

  Behind us, there was a thud.

  I turned. Damn it. I’d forgotten I was floating Caleb along. Caleb had said that they could see us on those cameras, that someone would be coming.