Fire Song (City of Dragons) (26 page)

“But we’re not here to talk about me,” said Lachlan. “Like I told you when we met, I’m looking into the Dragon Slasher murders. That’s what I want to talk to you about.”

“You think we did it, huh?”

“Did you?” Lachlan’s voice was level, almost pleasant.

Raymond picked at his front tooth. “Maybe we did. It’s not as if we’re ever going to get out of jail, is it? Since you claim we tried to kill you, and you’re a cop.”

“You deny trying to kill me?”

“Cop killers get locked up, and they throw away the key,” said Raymond. “I know how it works. So maybe there ain’t no reason to be coy about it. But let me tell you what. If I tell you what happened, then I want access to any reporter who wants to talk to me about it. I’m going to use this for the good of the Brotherhood.”

Lachlan narrowed his eyes. “I’m not making a deal with you. Anyway, you’re not high on my list of suspects when it comes to killing those dragon girls.”

Raymond looked offended. “Why not?”

“Well, there’s no evidence,” said Lachlan. “We searched that place you had me and my associate held captive and we couldn’t find a trace of the dragon girls. Where’d you do it?”

“Hey, I’m not admitting to nothing until you admit that I can have reporters.”

“This is what I’m trying to tell you, Mr. Pascal. You don’t have a bargaining chip. I don’t have to offer you anything.”

“But we did it,” said Raymond. “We killed those girls.”

I let out an audible breath outside the room. Really? It was those goddamned Brotherhood bastards this whole time?

Lachlan furrowed his brow. “Where’d you do it?”

“You don’t believe me?”

Lachlan shrugged. “It seems to me that you’ve got nothing to lose, Mr. Pascal. You might admit to anything for publicity.”

Raymond bared his teeth, and suddenly, he looked like a caged animal, as if something feral and dangerous within him was about to break loose. “Of course you didn’t find any trace. We cleaned up after ourselves.”

“Where’d you do it?”

“Ten feet from where we almost killed you.”

“You did it with a gun?”

“No. We drowned them. We knocked them unconscious and poured water over their mouths and noses, and we got rid of those stupid dragon bitches. They deserved it, little whores. Dancing around in the clubs, pretending to be human when they were nothing more than poison. The dragons destroy everything wholesome, and we had to teach them a lesson. We would have killed them all, given enough time. Exterminated their race from the earth. And then the magic would
stop
.”

“You drowned them,” said Lachlan. “And they didn’t use their magic on you?”

“Weren’t you listening?” said Raymond. “They were knocked out.”

“Why didn’t you kill me and my associate that way? Sounds a bit more effective than using guns,” said Lachlan.

Raymond looked at his fingernails. “Well, it wasn’t exactly… me who did the dragon girls.”

“So you’re not confessing?’

“I saw it,” said Raymond. “I witnessed him doing it. But I didn’t do it, because I didn’t like to get up close and personal like that. Not because I’m squeamish or nothing, just because it seems like it’s dangerous, you know? What if those dragon girls had woken up and started using their magic on Otis.”

“So, Otis did it?”

Raymond flinched.

“It was Otis,” said Lachlan softly. “He killed them.”

“He hates dragons,” said Raymond in a small voice. “Dragons killed his little baby sisters.”

Lachlan sighed. “You all witnessed Otis doing this?”

Raymond nodded.

“Did you help him?”

“How do you mean help?” said Raymond. His voice raised to a wheedling pitch. “Look, if I seen him do it, can’t I be a witness for the prosecution or something? Trade my testimony for putting Otis away?”

Lachlan let out a low chuckle. “So, you haven’t accepted that you have nothing to lose after all?”

“Do I have a bargaining chip now?” Raymond smiled an ugly smile, his missing tooth prominent.

Lachlan got up from his chair. “How about you write this all up for me, hmm?” He slid a piece of paper across the desk along with a pen. “Write it all up, everything you remember, and then we’ll talk.” He left the interrogation room, joining me outside.

I looked through the window at Raymond, who was gripping the pen and starting to write.

Lachlan leaned into the wall, resting his head against it. He closed his eyes. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

“You believe him?”

He opened his eyes. “You don’t?”

“I…” I wrapped my arms around myself. “I thought that Alastair…”

Lachlan pushed away from the wall. “You would have liked that. It would have been convenient for you if he was put in jail and he could never bother you again.”

I massaged my elbows. “I really thought it was him.”

Lachlan turned and looked through the glass at Raymond.

Convenient? Had really just said that it would have been
convenient
for me to have my ex-husband be a murderer? I let my arms drop. “You’re always saying horrible things about me to my face.”

Lachlan looked back at me. “What are you talking about?”

“You said that I pick up strays and that the only reason I care about people is so that I have people to take care of, so that I can feel important.”

“What?” He shook his head. “I’m fairly sure I never said anything like that.”

“And now you’re accusing me of trying to make Alastair guilty for my own selfish reasons.”

“I’m not accusing you—”

“Fuck you, Lachlan Flint.”

He raised his eyebrows.

“I’m leaving,” I muttered. I turned and stalked away.

Felicity was boxing up her things when I got back to the apartment.

I felt like crying.

I didn’t. I poked my head in and asked if she needed any help.

She put me to work folding up her jeans and putting them in a suitcase.

“I didn’t think you’d be leaving so soon,” I said as I folded. I was perched on the floor, piles of jeans on hangers around me. Who knew she had so many pairs of jeans?

“Just getting a head start. I figured it doesn’t make sense to wait, anyway,” she said. “Because I’m always sleeping over there anyway. It would be nice not to have to pack a bag every time.”

“Right,” I said. “I guess you feel like you already live there.”

She shoved aside a stack of jeans and sat down next to me. “Don’t sound so excited about it.”

I sighed. “Sorry. I’m happy for you. I really am. I want you to have this, and I don’t need to keep you around just so I have a reason to live.”

“What?”

I rubbed my temples. “Something stupid Lachlan said. I can’t stop thinking about it.”

“Oh, so now it’s Lachlan, not Flint.”

“Shut up. I just thought we should be on a first name basis if we were going to work together. But I’m pretty sure I just quit, so it doesn’t matter.”

“You quit?”

“Not exactly. But I told him to go fuck himself, so I imagine he’s pissed.”

“Well, he must have done something.”

“We found an eyewitness to the murders today,” I said.

“Oh, that’s good.”

“Well, it is, but the killer isn’t Alastair. And I thought it was him. I
really
thought it was.” I picked up a pair of jeans and began furiously folding them. “And Lachlan said it would have been
convenient
for me if it had been Alastair. He made it sound like I was going after Alastair for personal reasons.”

“Maybe you were. If he wasn’t really the killer—”

“Well, someone should go after him, because of all the shit he did to me. He hurt me. He broke my arm once. Do you remember that?”

“Yes,” she said softly.

“But I erased the evidence. I shifted and healed myself and pretended like it never happened, and now he’s not getting punished at all.”

“You want him to be punished?”

“I want…” I slammed the jeans into the suitcase and buried my face in my hands.

Felicity patted my back.

I raised my face to look at her. “I want not to be attracted to him anymore. But I always will be. Because of the stupid mating bond, I’ll always want him. And it makes me sick.”

“Even if he’d been the killer, you still would have been attracted to him.”

I sighed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

She reached out and snagged one of my hands. She squeezed it. “Just call the detective and apologize. I’m sure he’ll get over it.”

“I’m not apologizing to him. He’s the one who said that you were a stray I collected.”

She drew back. “What?”

“Yeah,” I said. “He said that people don’t keep on going in the face of tragedy because someone cares about them, but because they have someone to take care of. He said that I was able to have a light inside me because I had people like you and Connor depending on me.”

“Oh,” said Felicity. “Well, maybe that’s kind of true.”

“No, it’s not,” I said. “I don’t need you to live here. I can let you go. I can let you move out and start your own life. I care about you. I didn’t become your friend just for some selfish reason, so that I could feel important.”

She laughed a little. “You’re twisting it all up.”

“Am I?”

She nodded.

“But I’m going to miss you.”

“I’m going to miss you too,” she said. “But you’ll still see me. I’m still going to work here. And whenever you need me, you just call me, and I’ll talk you down, just like I’m doing now.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She smiled. “It’s not just you taking care of me, you know. I do my share of taking care of you too.”

I smiled back. “I know that.”

Felicity hugged me. “Stop freaking out, all right? Everything is going to be just fine.”

*

“So, then I asked if I could buy him a drink,” said Connor. “And he said that he wasn’t interested. Just looked me over and stuck up his nose.”

“What a dick,” I said.

Connor and I were behind the counter. It was nearly midnight. All the guests were checked in, and it was quiet. We had vacancies, just like we usually did this time of year, but it was unlikely anyone would walk in this late on a weeknight.

“Yeah,” said Connor. “But do you think it was because I was a gargoyle?”

“Who cares why he was a dick,” I said. “He
was
one. So why he did his dickish dick move is not even important.”

“I just think that there aren’t enough gargoyles in the gay community, mostly because people are afraid of what their matriarchs will say, and I think that other gay guys are turned off by gargoyles.”

“You can’t think like that.”

“But I do.”

“Well, shut that down,” I said. “You
are
a gargoyle. You can’t change what you are. If you have thoughts like that, it’s only going to lead to a bad place. So, the minute a thought like that crosses your brain, just tell it to take a hike.”

He laughed. “But what if it’s true?”

“It’s not,” I said. “And even if it was, it’s the kind of truth you need to ignore. You’re going to meet someone amazing someday, Connor. Trust me.”

He eyed me. “Are you being this optimistic because something’s blooming between you and that detective?”

“No,” I said. “There’s nothing between us. I’m not even going to work with him anymore.”

“Seriously?”

“He found the murderer today, so I’m done. The case is closed. The end.”

“Oh. Who did it?”

“Some crazy slayer who hates dragons. He’s convinced that dragons killed his sisters years ago, and he hates the whole race. He joined the Brotherhood, and they helped him out, and he killed those girls.”

“Whoa, that’s horrible.”

“Yeah,” I said.

“But don’t you think that the police might need your help with other cases? Didn’t that detective want you to be like a consultant that he could call whenever he needed help?”

“Well, I don’t think I’m going to do that.” I squared my shoulders. “I’m busy with the hotel, after all.”

“You are not busy.” Connor made a face. “Did you have a fight with him or something?”

“Not exactly,” I said.

He drew back. “Oh my God. You guys got it on, and it was bad.”

“No!” I shoved Connor. Not hard or anything. Not that it mattered. He was a gargoyle. He was made of living stone.

“Is he a bad kisser? Did he prematurely ejaculate? Does he have a tiny penis?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I have not kissed him or seen his penis or had sex with him.”

“Sure, you haven’t.”