Fire Song (City of Dragons) (25 page)

He tore his gaze away from mine. Without another word, he hurled himself away from me, pushing people aside in his haste.

I was trembling. I turned back to the bar and picked up my drink. I tried to take a drink, but my hands were shaking too hard. It spilled.

I set it down and placed my hands palms down on the bar.

What the hell?

Jensen was laughing. “Geez, Penny, stop apologizing. I told you that it’s okay. Really. I’ve gotten used to it at this point. Being a vampire isn’t always easy.”

“I know that,” I said, taking another drink from my glass of wine, “which is why I’m sorry that my behavior did nothing to alleviate that difficulty.”

“You were just looking out for me,” said Felicity. “You’ve always been a mama bear in that way.”

The three of us were out to dinner at The Green Fin, a restaurant that specialized in Thai and Vietnamese food along Atlantic Avenue. I’d never been here before, but it had seemed appropriate. And we couldn’t very well go back to Lombardo’s after the scene I’d caused there.

Felicity had ordered two thick steaks and had them cooked rare. Her plate was full of Thai seasonings and red meat juice now, since she’d eaten them both. “I appreciate the sentiment, but not the mode of operation.”

“I really am sorry,” I said.

She laughed. “That wasn’t meant as a cue for you to apologize again.”

“Well, I
am
sorry, though,” I said. I turned to Jensen. “I was out of line. I can’t use Felicity as an excuse.”

“I’m glad she has someone like you, though,” he said. “She needs someone to be in her corner.”

I shrugged. “Well, we’re best friends. That’s what we do for each other. She’d go to bat for me too.”

Felicity smiled at me. “I’m so glad that you’re not angry with Jensen anymore.”

“Me too,” I said.

“Because now we can tell you our big news, and you won’t get all freaked out.”

“Big news?” I raised my eyebrows.

Felicity beamed at Jensen. “We’re going to move in together.”

I set down my wine glass. “Oh.”

Jensen grinned at her, his expression full of adoration. “She’s already at my place practically every night, anyway, and I have the extra room, so I figured why not?”

“So, you’re moving into his apartment, then?” I said. Felicity would be gone. No more breakfasts together at the Pink Flamingo. No more long talks in the middle of the night. “You’re not going to get a separate place?”

“Oh, we’ll probably move somewhere else after his lease is up,” she said. “But it doesn’t make sense to break it, not when I don’t really have anything to move in anyway. I’ve got clothes, of course, but I haven’t really acquired any furniture or anything like that. I mean, my whole adult life, I’ve lived with you.”

“I thought you liked that,” I said in a small voice.

“I did. I do.” She was still grinning. “But I can’t depend on your hospitality forever.”

“It’s not hospitality,” I said. “You work at the hotel. Giving you a place to live is part of your wages.”

She furrowed her brow. “Are you okay?”

I took a drink of wine. “I never meant to get in the way of your acquiring furniture.”

“You didn’t.” She laughed. “Are you upset about this? You spent all night apologizing to Jensen, so you can’t still think that he—”

“I’m not upset.” I took another drink of wine. A bigger drink. I forced myself to laugh. “It’s, um, a surprise is all.”

“Yeah, it is, but a good one,” said Felicity. She grabbed my hand. “You’re happy for me, right?”

I nodded. “Of course. This is… this is great for you.” I looked at Jensen. “For both of you.” I took another drink of wine. And then another. And then I just gulped down the rest of the glass. I pushed my chair back. “Um, I’m going to head to the restroom, okay?”

Once alone in the bathroom, I locked the door behind me and stood at the sink, staring at myself in the mirror.

I tried to imagine a life in which Felicity and I didn’t live together. Ever since she’d become a drake, she’d lived with me. When I was married to Alastair, she’d come along, and I’d told him that she was the best housekeeper I’d ever had and that I couldn’t live without her.

And yes, she’d cleaned my house back then, but I’d never thought of her as a servant. She’d been the only thing that kept me sane. Without her, I didn’t think I’d ever have had the strength to leave Alastair.

But had it been fair to her? I’d always thought that I had been doing her a favor, because she was a drake, and she needed somewhere to work and to live, and I had thought that I was helping her out.

I glared at my reflection. “She’s not a stray,” I muttered at myself.

It wasn’t true. I didn’t take care of her just to feel as if I mattered to the universe, just to have a reason to live. I thought of her as an equal. As my best friend. But the more I thought about it, the more it did seem as if she was kept by me. Like a pet.

I shut my eyes.

Damn Lachlan for saying that to me. Damn him.

I didn’t want Felicity to leave. That was selfish of me. I would miss her, and I was used to having her around.

But I could let her go out on her own.

I could overcome my selfishness.

And I didn’t… I didn’t
need
her to need me. Because that was incredibly screwed up, and I wasn’t going to believe that kind of thing about myself.

I sucked in a breath and glared at the mirror. “That’s the real difference between you and me, Lachlan. You believe the worst about yourself. But I refuse to think that I’m doing anything other than the best I can.”

*

I stood over Lachlan’s desk.

He was intent on his computer screen, reading something on it with a knitted brow. He was so interested in it that he hadn’t even noticed my approach.

I set a coffee cup down next to him.

He started.

“Good morning,” I said.

“Penny. You scared the crap out of me.”

I laughed, sitting down next to him. “What’s going on? You didn’t get in touch with me yesterday.”

“Was I supposed to?”

“Well, I thought I was still helping you out with the case.”

“You are.”

“So, yesterday, you weren’t working on it?” I said. “I thought that it was your number one priority. I thought the captain was breathing down your neck.”

He picked up the coffee up and took the lid off of it. He blew on the steaming black liquid. “No, it was only that I was doing boring stuff yesterday. Paperwork. Research. I just didn’t want to bother you.”

“Oh,” I said. “Because I was a little worried. When you left me at the bar the other night—”

“Let’s not talk about that.” He took a drink of his coffee and then winced. Apparently, it was too hot. “It’s been a while since I’ve had a beer. Must not have much tolerance anymore, I guess. Forget everything I said.”

“You didn’t really say anything,” I said.

“Good,” he said. He turned back to his screen. “Truth is, today’s probably going to be more boring stuff. Just more research. I appreciate the coffee and all, but I don’t need you today.”

I folded my arms over my chest. “I can help with research.”

He shook his head, still not looking at me. “That’s not what I need you for. You’re here because you know about magical creatures. I’m just looking into real estate records.”

“I can use a computer, you know,” I said. “Let me help. It’ll go quicker.”

He sighed.

“You’re trying to get rid of me,” I said.

“No,” he said. “I swear I’m not.” But he was still staring at the screen.

“Look at me and say that,” I said.

He sighed again. Then he got up. “Sit.” He pointed to his chair.

“I don’t need to take your computer.”

“Well, I’m already signed in here,” he said. “So, you use this one, and I’ll go over there.” He pointed two desks over. “I’ll sign in over there. I’m the one with the login. Makes more sense for me to move.”

“Oh,” I said.

He pointed to the screen, at the blinking cursor. “You look for any property owned by Killian Henderson,” he said. “I’ll look into Anthony Barnes. We’ll check in with each other in a half an hour?”

“Okay,” I said. “Sounds good.”

*

“What’d you find out?” Lachlan asked me. He was still working on his coffee, but he’d put the lid back on.

“Well,” I said. “Killian owns the strip club, of course. And he also owns a big house out on Ocean Pines. I found an old real estate listing for it on the Internet, and it had pictures of the inside. I can show you if you want.”

“In a minute,” he said. “What’s it like?”

“Huge,” I said. “It’s three stories. I don’t know if it’s likely that he could keep girls there and kill them without his wife knowing about it, but I think it could be possible.”

“Okay,” said Lachlan. “What you’re saying is that we can’t rule him out.”

“Not yet,” I said. “But he doesn’t seem to have a special kill house or something.”

“Well, we should go and talk to the wife at some point,” said Lachlan. “Maybe then we get some idea of how much attention she pays to his comings and goings.”

“Okay,” I said. “What did you find out about Anthony Barnes?”

Lachlan shook his head. “Well, believe it or not, Barnes inherited an old house way down near Assateague. The place is pretty isolated. It could be perfect.”

“Wow,” I said.

“Yeah,” he said. “But it’s been in the family for a while, and it’s in disrepair. It took a beating in the last hurricane that came through, and it’s never been fixed up since. I don’t know if it’s the kind of place where he could really keep someone.”

“But we can’t rule him out either, then,” I said.

“Right,” he said.

“And Alastair?” I said. “What about him? Does he have any property?”

“Well, that’s what I was looking into yesterday,” said Lachlan. “I found out that he doesn’t own the house where he’s staying. His sister does. But he does own property down here. He’s got a big mansion inland, near Delaware. It’s not close to the beach, but it’s very, very remote. I put in for a warrant to search it, but I don’t know if the captain will give it to me or not. I haven’t got much evidence, and I know that the department doesn’t like to mess with the dragons. No one likes to make enemies of dragons if it isn’t necessary.”

“But if he’s the killer, then the whole dragon community would want to know about it.”

“I agree,” said Lachlan. “We’ll just have to wait and find out what comes of that.”

“So, we’re no better off than we were at the beginning,” I said. “This didn’t help us eliminate anyone.” I shot a glance at the board. “Oh. Otis. He doesn’t own property.”

“No,” said Lachlan. “He doesn’t. I checked into that.”

“So, can we eliminate him?”

“He’s a member of the Brotherhood. Who showed themselves eager and willing to kill both of us the other day. That area where they were keeping us, that would be a perfect place to kill the victims.”

“I guess it would.” I chewed on my lip.

“Of course, when they were arrested, the uniforms who came when I called searched the entire place, and there was no sign of any foul play at all. And there wasn’t anything that would tie the victims to that place. We even confiscated any weapons we could find, but none of the knives seemed to match the wounds on the victims’ chests.”

“So, it wasn’t them?” I said.

“Doesn’t seem likely,” he said. “I’ve been thinking I might interrogate them just in case. See if I can shake anything loose.”

“Oh,” I said. “You’re supposed to be so brilliant at interrogating. Can I watch?”

*

The leader of the Brotherhood was No Tooth. His name was actually Raymond Pascal. He slumped behind the table in the interrogation room, arms crossed over his chest, glaring at Lachlan, who was sitting across from him, making a show of riffling through a stack of paperwork.

“I know what you are,” said Raymond.

Lachlan kept going through the paperwork.

“This is being recorded, isn’t it? What do you think the rest of the police force is going to think when they find out you’re a bloodsucker?”

Lachlan pulled out two lone pieces of paper. “Why do you think they hired me?”

Raymond looked surprised.

To be honest, I was surprised too. I had sort of thought Lachlan was trying to keep it a big secret or something. I guessed he just wasn’t broadcasting it. Didn’t surprise me.

Lachlan shrugged. “I came here because this place is supposed to be friendly to magical creatures. And the police force was looking to diversify. Most people are, you know.”

Raymond waited a bit and then took the bait. “Are what?”

“Friendly,” Lachlan smiled. “You and your people are a notable exception.”

Raymond didn’t say anything.