Dragon Blood

by Linsey Hall

  “You seem to have trouble keeping your word.” The words weren’t nice, but there was no meanness to his tone. He was just honest. And he was right. Last time we’d worked together, I’d made a deal not to kill the demon we were after.

  Then I’d totally killed the demon. Duh. “I do keep my word. To my sister.”

  He nodded. “That’s something, at least.”

  I wasn’t going to tell some sad-sack story about our pasts and trying to survive and why we were the way we were. It was true, but it didn’t matter. I wasn’t looking for pity—fates no—or understanding. I didn’t have to prove anything to him.

  But…

  I still liked him.

  I couldn’t help it, and I wasn’t going to lie to myself. I didn’t like that he might have a low opinion of me. Except, I didn’t know how to change it.

  So I changed the subject instead. “I definitely made an enemy out of Mauritius, but the bastard used his magic for the wrong reasons. And it wasn’t even his. He’d stolen it. No wonder he couldn’t hold on to his position as Arch Magus.”

  Declan shrugged and nodded. “Can’t say that you’re wrong.”

  “Except now we have a big problem.”

  “Six of those charms.”

  My skin chilled at the thought. The demon could be deploying them even now. But where?

  “Why are you hunting him?” I asked.

  “Same reason as always. Bounty on his head.”

  “By who?”

  “Can’t say.”

  “Fair enough.” We both had our secrets.

  “Why are you hunting him? You didn’t even know what kind of demon it was, so you can’t be after his blood.”

  “The people on Factory Row are my friends.” And it was the truth. I’d be hunting him for that reason even if the Council hadn’t told me to do it. “Let’s work together.”

  He raised his brow. “How the tables have turned.”

  A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. I’d been so resistant to working with him before, but this time… My friends’ lives were at risk. There were five more charms out there, possibly already deployed or about to be.

  As much as I liked to do things alone… “We’re better together. That’s how we succeeded back there. And this is too important to go it alone.”

  “I don’t suppose I can trust your word that you won’t kill the demon right out from under me, can I?”

  “You can try.” I shrugged. I didn’t want to lie to him. “But no. Once I’ve interrogated him to figure out who put him up to this, I’m going to try to kill him. You can try to catch him.”

  “That doesn’t work for me.”

  “Let’s agree to disagree, then.”

  “That’s what people say when they’re fighting about whether or not dinner was good or a baseball team is the best.”

  I cracked another smile. “Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it?”

  “That analogy works better.” He frowned, clearly mulling it over.

  “What’s more important to you? Your bounty, or saving the lives of those people turned to stone?”

  He groaned, and I knew I had him.

  Because the bounty hunter wanted his money, but not nearly as much as the angel wanted to do the right thing.

  I nodded. “Excellent. That’s settled. We’re working together to catch this bastard.”

  It was weird for me to do something like this, but it was the right thing. I knew it. I turned toward my house, ready to climb the steps to the front.

  “On one condition,” he said.

  Shit. I turned back to him, frowning. “What’s that?”

  “Tell me why you tried to make me forget about you.”

  Double shit. The truth was complicated. I liked him, but I didn’t want to get involved with anyone in case they figured out what I was. And that was not something I could tell him.

  “Well?” he asked.

  “Fine. I like you, but I didn’t want to get into any kind of relationship or whatever. I’m used to being a loner.”

  “So the solution was to erase my memory? Not just say ‘hey, see ya’ later?’”

  “I didn’t say it was the smartest thing to do.”

  “You strike me as too smart to do something that dumb. For those reasons at least.”

  “Let’s agree to disagree.” I tried out the phrase again, hoping that this time, he would go along with it. “Now, come on. We need to make a plan.”

  He sighed. “Fine. The mission comes first. But I am going to figure out what’s up with you.”

  “What’s up with me is that I want some food and to make a plan before shit hits the fan and this gets messy.”

  “I’d say we’re already there.”

  Unfortunately, he was probably right. I climbed the stairs to my house and let myself in. Declan followed behind, and I beelined for my kitchen. Normally, my all-white space would soothe me.

  Today, all I could think about was Declan walking right behind me. I could feel his gaze on me, and it warmed me from the inside out. I strode into the kitchen and rang the little bell that connected to the Chinese restaurant down the street. Two rings for two portions, with an extra quick jingle at the end to indicate that I was in a hurry and didn’t care what they sent. Normally they’d send me something off of my preferred list, but in situations like this, I wasn’t picky.

  “Food should be here any minute,” I said. The bell was connected to a portal, so it wouldn’t take them long at all.

  “Chinese?”

  “Yes. We can eat on the way to the Order of the Magica offices and tell them to evacuate the city. We don’t know where the Oraxia demon will hit next, so best to be prepared.” I hated going to the Order—I didn’t trust them as far as I could throw them—but we’d be going to a branch of their offices that weren’t a threat to me.

  “Good plan. Though a lot of people won’t listen. We don’t even know if the demon will deploy another orb here.”

  He had a point, both about the bomb and the people who wouldn’t listen. Folks in Magic’s Bend were stubborn, especially Darklaners. A while ago, our whole town had almost been sucked into a portal and destroyed, and most of Darklane had stayed put.

  The food appeared on the carton, and I handed one to Declan without looking inside. “Chopsticks?”

  He nodded, and I handed him one of the paper packets of disposable wooden utensils.

  I dug into mine as we left the kitchen. I was so hungry that it tasted like heaven. We’d only been here a couple minutes, fortunately, but we still needed to get a move on. “Let’s go. We’ll hit up Order headquarters first.”

  I really hoped the government would listen to me. What kind of story was I going to feed them about how I’d come upon this information, though? The truth worked, for the most part. Except for the fact that it didn’t answer the question of why a blood sorceress like me was on the hunt.

  For my friends.

  I’d eaten almost half my lo mein by the time we reached the foyer and the alarm went off. It blared loud and fierce, with red smoke forming at the ceiling.

  “What’s that?” Declan asked.

  I opened the door to the outside and shoved him onto the front step.

  “I need you to wait here.” I pressed a hand to his chest. “Don’t leave this spot.”

  He frowned at me. “What’s going on?”

  “It’s like a phone call, and I have to go answer it. It’ll only take a minute.”

  He gave me a skeptical look, and I tried to smile in a way that said, “Trust me.”

  Finally, he nodded, though I didn’t think he’d bought the message I was trying to sell with my smile. But I didn’t have a choice. I needed to answer this call.

  I shut the door in his face, locked it, then raced back to my workshop. Without Mari, I’d have to move the table on my own. I set my carton of lo mein on the fireplace mantel and sliced my finger, dripping blood onto one corner of the table, then walked to the other corner
and pressed my hand to it.

  As usual, the table levitated and drifted to the side, but I could feel the strain. It really helped to have Mari use her magic, too.

  I walked toward the invisible trapdoor and fed it two drops of blood. When the ground disappeared, I raced down the spiral stone staircase, letting the cool air of the earth envelop me. I passed the aerlig vines and the Lights of Truth and reached the bottom of the stairs in record time. I hurried toward the glittering blue pool and kicked off my shoes before stepping into the water.

  I chanted, “Here I be, let me see.”

  Agatha appeared almost immediately, her ghostly form nearly transparent. “There’s been another attack.”

  “Shit.”

  “Government Lane.”

  “Double shit.”

  “Language.”

  “That’s what you’re concerned about?”

  She tsked.

  “Do you know anything about Oraxia demons?” I asked.

  She frowned. “No one has seen an Oraxia demon in centuries.”

  “What can you tell me about them?”

  “Not much, unfortunately. They’re very strong and very loyal. Perhaps the most loyal demon there is.”

  “Loyal to whom? Those who hire them?”

  She nodded. “Most demons have some loyalty to those who get them out of the underworld or the Dark World, but Oraxia demons were known to be particularly dedicated. They’ll complete whatever task they were chosen for.”

  Damn. Most demons could only get out of the underworld if someone on earth helped them do it. In exchange, the demon was normally required to work for that person as a mercenary. Their loyalty could often be swayed, though. But not the Oraxia demon, apparently.

  Just our luck. “Anything else I should know?”

  “Just that you need to hurry.”

  “Isn’t that always the way?” I gave her a small smile. “Thanks, Agatha. Wish me luck. My friends’ lives are on the line.”

  She gave a small nod, which was the most I was going to get out of her. Agatha wasn’t big on emotion.

  Quickly, I pressed my fingertips to my comms charm. “Mari?”

  “Yeah? You okay?”

  “I’m fine. But don’t come back to Magic’s Bend.”

  “What? Why?” Panic flared in her voice.

  “More orbs are out there. A second one just went off on Government Lane.”

  “Shit.”

  “Exactly. So don’t come back into the city limits. We don’t know where the next one will go off.”

  “What about you?”

  “That’s why you need to stay out. Someone will have to rescue me.” I could just imagine her scowl. “Any luck with Claire?”

  “Just found her. She’s fine.”

  My shoulders relaxed. Thank fates for small favors. “I’m going to go check out Government Lane. Then we can meet and make a plan.”

  “Where do you want to meet?”

  “Somewhere right outside of town. I don’t think he’ll deploy one where there aren’t any people. What’s the point?”

  “How about the beach to the north?”

  It was one of our favorite places, a quiet stretch of rocks and driftwood that butted up against the wild Pacific Ocean. “Okay, see you there. Safe hunting.”

  “Safe hunting.”

  I cut the magic in the comms charm and hurried back up the stairs, spiraling my way toward the surface. When I reached the aerlig vines, I caught sight of a figure trapped within them. The vines twisted around the huge form of a man.

  Declan.

  Damn it.

  5

  I stopped in front of the mass of vines, staring hard at Declan’s trapped form. “Fancy seeing you here.”

  “What the hell is this place?” His voice was muffled behind the vine that partially covered his mouth.

  “My secret lair. I locked you out on the front step. What the hell are you doing?”

  “Trying to break into your secret lair and figure out what the hell is going on with you.”

  “So you broke into my house?” I added some extra chill to my voice.

  “You need a better lock and protection charm.”

  Any chill that I had evaporated. “It’s one of the best!”

  Damn it. Besides the lock on the door and the protection charm that he’d apparently managed to break through, I’d trusted him to stay where I told him to stay because he was an angel.

  A fallen angel.

  I was an idiot. Declan was a mix of good and bad, like I was. In fact, he was way too much like me. Which was exactly why I shouldn’t trust him.

  Mari and I didn’t trust anyone except each other, and he wasn’t doing a great job of convincing me to do otherwise.

  I pressed my hand to the vines that bound him. I could just barely get a hint of Declan’s intentions through the vines that had stopped him. They stopped anyone who didn’t have permission or who had ill intentions. Declan didn’t have ill intentions according to the vines—which I could trust—but he also didn’t have permission to be here, so they’d wrapped him up.

  “Thanks, guys,” I murmured.

  “You’re talking to the plant?”

  “Yep.” I used my mind to command the plants to let him go.

  Slowly they unwound, freeing Declan. I pointed up the stairs. “We’re going that way.”

  “What the hell is down that way?” He pointed down the stairs.

  “None of your business.”

  “That just makes it more interesting.”

  “My shoe collection, all right?”

  “No.”

  “Weapons.”

  “More believable, at least.” He turned and started up the stairs. “I’m going to get to the bottom of you, though. Mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a riddle.”

  I’d joked with him about that before, and he remembered. “No you won’t.”

  He chuckled, as if the idea were absurd. I followed him up to the room and put the table back in place, then grabbed my carton of lo mein off the mantel. I’d lost my appetite when Agatha had told me about Government Lane, but I knew from experience that if I didn’t eat, I’d weaken.

  “Let’s go.” I shoved a bite in my mouth, not bothering to tell Declan about Government Lane. We’d see it soon enough, and I didn’t want him knowing I had an inside track on what was going on. That would invite way too many questions.

  I finished my food as we hurried out of the house and around the corner to the alley where I’d parked my car. It was an old white Cadillac, a total boat of a car, and I loved it. Maybe it was a weird choice, but it was mine.

  I tossed my empty carton a trash bin, then climbed behind the wheel. Declan got in the passenger seat. A tingle of fear streaked down my spine at the thought of the demon who was out there, deploying the rest of the orbs in Magic’s Bend. Two down, four to go.

  At any moment, he could deploy one right near me, and I’d turn to stone. I swallowed hard. It was like a horrible game of Russian roulette.

  It wouldn't take long to reach Government Lane, which was near the Business District. Anxiety tugged at me, and I drew a bag of Cheetos from the ether. My emergency stash. I crunched on them while I drove, offering Declan some. He declined.

  “You’re missing out.” Not only did they taste good, they helped minimize feelings of stress. I was pretty sure it even said that on the bag.

  I polished them off and turned onto the main street in Government Lane. The big marble buildings looked very official and administrative. There weren’t any gawkers there yet. Partially because it was nighttime and this part of town was closed down. And partially because the detection devices that would pick up on the deployment of dark magic were located in Government Lane. The orb had probably frozen them, along with the people who would answer the distress call.

  This was bad freaking news.

  Even worse news was the fact that many government officials lived in swanky apartments on this street so they wer
e close to work. The Oraxia demon had effectively taken out our government in one fell swoop.

  I kept my mouth shut about it, though, and turned toward an open parking spot along the street.

  “We should go to the mayor’s house,” Declan said. “Tell him first, then he can get the word out for people to evacuate.”

  “Good plan.” I turned the car off and climbed out.

  The mayor would probably be frozen, but no way would I mention that. Then I’d have to explain how I knew.

  I pressed my lips together and hurried to the big townhouse that belonged to the mayor. It was built of white marble with columns in front, and I’d always found it to be quite gaudy. I climbed the stairs and banged on the door, waiting.

  Declan waited next to me, his frown growing as the seconds ticked on.

  “Even if the mayor isn’t home, his staff would be.” Declan turned around to inspect the street. “Oddly quiet here.”

  “It’s off hours.”

  “Still.”

  “You think something is wrong.”

  “I feel it. Don’t you?”

  I shivered, finally nodding. “Yeah. Let’s break in.”

  “A woman after my own heart.”

  He pulled a little packet of tiny lock-picking tools from his pocket and got to work. We were inside in less than a minute.

  I stepped into the quiet foyer. The lights still flickered, and I could hear the faint sound of a TV coming from the left.

  “That’s not good.” Quietly, I moved toward the TV. When I caught sight of the mayor’s frozen form, sitting in an armchair in front of the screen, my shoulders slumped.

  I’d believed Agatha when she’d told me the orb had been deployed here, but I hated seeing it.

  “Damn it.” Declan strode toward the mayor and crouched down to inspect him. “He already deployed a second orb.”

  “Recently, I think. The mayor probably just sat down to watch the eight o’clock news.” I looked at the clock over the mantel. Eight thirty. The bomb had gone off before we’d even returned to Magic’s Bend. “If we assume that, then there was about a six-hour gap between orbs.”

  “That doesn’t give us a lot of time.” He walked to the window and looked out. “The whole neighborhood is frozen. Just like Factory Row.”