Love Burns

Love Burns

Copyright 2016 by Georgette St. Clair

This book is intended for readers 18 and older only, due to adult content. It is a work of fiction. All characters and locations in this book are products of the imagination of the author. No shifters were harmed during the creation of this book.

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It was 6:45 a.m. Dragon shifter Calder Kingsley’s first day on the job hadn’t even officially started yet, and he was ready to set something – or more likely someone – on fire.

Calder was South Lyndvale’s new Vigilum Principe, which was the dragon equivalent of police chief. He commanded a squad of forty fire dragon centurions for the newly formed department. He’d been a centurion himself in the past, working for the Council of Dragon Elders, and this was his first foray into being on the admin side of things.

So far it sucked.

The station was already crowded with fire dragons who wanted to complain about the rash of vandalism that had taken place in South Lyndvale over the past few weeks. Previously they’d had no one to complain to. The only other Principe in the dragon territory lived in North Lyndvale and was an ice dragon, and he never investigated crimes against fire dragons.

Calder hadn’t even made it to the station before he’d been waved over by an angry citizen whose car tires had been frozen solid overnight. Now they were melting in the June heat, and had popped.

But the vandalism wasn’t what had smoke curling from Calder’s nostrils before he’d even had a chance to gulp down his second cup of coffee. Vandalism and angry citizens came with the job, he knew.

The object of his wrath was one Henrik Vromme, an Overseer for the Dragon Elders. He had called Calder a few minutes earlier and announced that due to complaints from the human population, he would be in town for the next thirty days to ensure that no more “incidents” took place, especially because they were in the middle of Dragon-crosse season, when things tended to get heated. Or frozen, as the case may be.

Dragon-crosse was like the human game lacrosse, but airborne. North and South Lyndvale high-school student Junior Leagues competed against each other every summer, and the games were taken very seriously. Far too seriously, in Calder’s opinion.

If the two warring clans couldn’t make it through the season in peace, Henrik would issue a formal recommendation to the Council of Dragon Elders that the local governments be dissolved, the Vigilum Principes be dismissed, and the entire area come under council control.

Nobody wanted that. Half the valley would probably end up in prison for what would normally be considered minor infractions. The Dragon Elders were desperate to keep the peace and to reassure humans that there was no threat of a full-on dragon war breaking out, with all its risks of collateral damage, so they tended to rule with a heavy hand.

“Damn council nannies,” Calder muttered to himself.

“Right? Those guys have no sense of humor,” Calder’s lieutenant Barnum Tompkins said cheerfully, snapping pictures of the frozen car. “You light one little hot dog stand on fire…” He saw Calder’s look and cleared his throat quickly. “I mean, not me, of course. I’m speaking theoretically of events that occurred before our new department was formed.”

“Yeah, I’m sure that will never happen again,” Calder said, giving Barnum a severe look that promised painful retribution if Barnum failed to take heed of his warning. Barnum blinked and tried to look innocent and harmless, while humming out of tune.

Barnum had a round face and curly light-brown hair that sprung up around his head in crazy ringlets. Despite his resemblance to a happy Muppet, he liked to think of himself as a ladies’ man. He didn’t seem to notice that most of his inept attempts at flirting were rejected; he had the kind of sunny, perpetually-in-denial personality that told him that he was absolutely irresistible, even if his dating history said otherwise.

He was also Mayor Tom Tompkins’ son, which was how he’d landed this particular job.

A blue SUV pulled up and parked, and Calder braced himself for another crabby fire dragon demanding justice for their frost-damaged petunias. However, he was pleasantly surprised by the woman who climbed out of the car.

“Hello,” he said to Barnum. “My day just looked up.”

The woman was full figured in a way that wasn’t currently in fashion, but that he definitely preferred. Broad hips, full bust, a soft, rounded tummy. She wore a light-blue linen blazer that brought out the blue in her eyes, with a pale-blue silk shell and a matching blue linen pencil skirt and blue pumps. She had a round, pretty face framed by straight, silky brown hair, and plump pink lips that he wanted to nibble on.

Ice dragon shifter, for sure, with those ice-blue eyes, but that was okay. Fire and ice pairings were rare, but they happened. His cousin Orion was married to an ice dragon shifter named Cadence, and he was deliriously happy.

She looked vaguely familiar to Calder. It was like he’d seen her somewhere before, but that couldn’t be right, because this was a woman he’d definitely remember if he’d met her.

Barnum’s gaze followed Calder’s, and his eyes lit up. “Dibs,” Barnum said automatically.

Calder scoffed. “Yeah, right. Good luck with that.” He walked over to her with a smile. “How can I help you today?”

Barnum was right on his heels.

“Hello. I’m Barnum. And you’re gorgeous,” he said to the woman.

She flicked a glance of irritation at him. “Negatory. Not happening,” she said dismissively, then focused her attention on Calder.

“See, I told you, she’s all over this,” Barnum said to Calder in a low voice, gesturing at himself.

She stared at Barnum. “I am
right here
. And I’m not hard of hearing,” she said. “But you are hard of comprehending.”

As if to prove her right, Barnum looked completely confused. “So…is that a yes, then?”

She turned her attention to Calder. “Calder Kingsley?” she said.

“Yes, that’s me. Nice to meet you. What can I do for you?”

She fixed him with an ice-cold glare. “You can tell your little fire-dragon thugs that if they burn swear words into the ‘Welcome To North Lyndvale’ sign one more time, I will personally come over here and freeze them into little punksicles.”

Barnum started to laugh, but saw the woman’s furious glare and pretended he was coughing into his hand. His smirk was still clearly visible, though.

Calder felt a ripple of anger flow through him.

“I’d advise against that,” he said, smiling politely at her but letting his eyes glow red. “Around here, we don’t consider vandalism to be punishable by death, Miss… I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”

“Olivia Cabrera. You don’t consider vandalism punishable by anything, as long as fire dragons are doing it.” A cloud of icy vapor drifted from her mouth as she spoke. “Well, I’m here to tell you that we’re not going to take it anymore. You’ve been warned.”

“And now let me warn you. Today is my first day in the office. I will not tolerate law-breaking by any of our fire dragons in South Lyndvale, and I will not tolerate vigilante justice from anyone in North Lyndvale. Oh, right, I guess with Principe Teague in charge of law enforcement there, that’s the best we can expect.”

At that, her eyes went reptilian, with black pupils turning into vertical slits, and the air around her chilled noticeably.

“Watch what you say about Teague.”

“Sorry, you’re right, there’s no need for me to insult your Principe.” He bared his teeth in a smile. “Your people seem to take care of that perfectly well yourselves.”

Calder was privy to the local gossip. The week before, several ice dragons had barely escaped capture after flying over the Teague mansion and dumping buckets of horse manure on it. And the week before that, he knew, someone had defaced the police station in the middle of the night, with obscene words questioning Teague’s parentage.

Teague and his clan had an iron grip on North Lyndvale, but they were extremely unpopular.

“Just tell your people to stay out of our way,” Olivia snapped.

“Based on whose authority?” Calder cocked an eyebrow in deliberate challenge.

“Based on mine. I’m the mayor of North Lyndvale.”

Calder burst into laughter. “Oh, it all makes perfect sense now.”

She looked thoroughly confused. And pissed. “What makes sense?”

“You’re crazy. Ma’am, I do know who the major players are around here. You’re not the mayor. Quinton Teague’s brother Arnie is the mayor.”

She made a scoffing sound. “Not anymore. My uncle Arnie was caught in a compromising position with one of the high-school interns yesterday morning, and he fled the country. The town council voted me in as interim mayor in an emergency election last night.”

Huh. So maybe the Teague clan’s iron grip on North Lyndvale was finally loosening.

Then the implications of what she’d just said hit him.

“Your uncle? So Quinton is…”

“My father. Yes. I use my late mother’s last name, always have. She and I left town when I was eight. I just moved back into town a few weeks ago.”

Calder just stared at her, at a loss for words. Yep, he should have seen that – she did look a little like a very pretty version of Quinton. That was why she had seemed familiar to him.

His first day in office, and he’d already insulted the new mayor of North Lyndvale and her father. Although the insults against Teague were entirely justified. Teague was a bully and was hated in his own town just as much as he was in South Lyndvale. But still. Really not a good start to building good relations with his neighbors.

She scowled at Calder. “Anyway, I can see you aren’t taking this the least bit seriously. What a surprise. I can assure you, you haven’t seen the last of me.” And she turned and stalked towards her car.

“And stop looking at my butt!” she yelled, sliding into her seat and slamming the door.

“How did she know?” Calder wondered. And why would he want to stop looking at her butt? She had a perfect butt.

Barnum tapped Calder on the arm as she drove away. “So she never answered my question. Do I have a decent shot or not?”

Calder shook his head, watching her drive away. He wouldn’t be making it into the office any time soon.

“Barnum, I think we need to go swing by the Beanbag,” he said.

Barnum perked up. “Coffee sounds good,” he said. “And pastry? I could use half a dozen more pastries.” Then he frowned. “So we’re not going to do anything about the vandalism? Maybe after we get coffee we should go do some investigating. Or before.” His stomach growled. Dragon shifters ate a lot; they needed to fuel their flame. “After,” he decided.

“We’re going to the coffee shop to investigate the vandalism,” Calder said.

“Ohhh. Good call, boss!”

“Yeah, that’s why they pay me the big bucks,” Calder said, sliding into the driver’s seat of his patrol car.

Calder had a pretty good idea who was behind the sign vandalism.

First of all, Olivia was right. It had obviously been the work of a fire dragon. The “Welcome to North Lyndvale” sign was twenty feet off the ground. Whoever had burned the graffiti into the sign must have hovered in the air to do it.

And there was one juvenile delinquent in particular who was known to indulge in that type of vandalism. Billy Sutton, that spoiled little brat. It was a shame – he was actually a talented artist. If only he’d put his talent towards something useful.

The problem was that Billy’s mother over-indulged and pampered Billy because he was her only surviving dragonling, and Billy knew he could get away with anything short of murder, because she’d bail him out. Or at least that had been the case so far.

Over the years, Sue Stratton had gotten pregnant with numerous clutches of dragonlings, but out of all her eggs, only Billy had made it.

It used to be a common problem among dragon shifters.

For many years, the survival rate of dragon eggs had been extremely low. Their shells were dangerously thin due to the effects of pollution and widespread use of pesticides. A few years ago, a fertility clinic had finally come up with a solution that involved transplanting eggs into an incubator early in a dragon’s pregnancy, so birth rates were on the rise again. However, there were a number of dragon shifters who were the sole surviving hatchling, like Billy, who ended up being spoiled, pampered and indulged far more than was good for them.

Calder and Barnum got into their patrol car and headed over to the Beanbag, which was crowded as usual. It was one of the more popular coffee shops in South Lyndvale.

Sue glanced up with a smile when she saw Calder enter, but her smile faded when she saw the serious look on his face.

“Sue, you’re looking extra gorgeous today,” Barnum said. Calder shot him an annoyed look.

“What?” Barnum whispered to Calder. “She’s single.”

True. Billy’s father had bailed out years ago.

“Well, aren’t you the charmer? Calder, can I get you your usual?” she asked with forced cheerfulness. “Pecan pie and coffee light and sweet? On the house, of course.”

Unfortunately, her guilty look combined with her attempt to sweet-talk him just confirmed that she knew her son was in trouble again.

“No thanks, Sue. I need to talk to you for a minute.”

“Well, sure, you go right ahead.” She leaned against the counter, meeting his gaze with a challenging stare. Was she hoping that he wouldn’t tell her off in front of the customers? Fine, if that was how she wanted to play it.

“Okay, and this is for everyone,” Calder said, raising his voice. “We have a serious problem, folks, and I want you to spread the word. We have a visitor in town. Henrik Vromme, Overseer for the Dragon Elders.”

“Ice or fire?” somebody yelled out. Calder sighed.

“Fire, not that it matters,” he said. He could see people start to visibly relax. That was a mistake. In a case like this, the Dragon Elders wouldn’t favor either side. “He is in town for the next thirty days. The Council has been getting numerous complaints from the human tourists about the flare-up between us and the ice dragons. The vandalism, the fights…if it keeps up, they will dissolve all local government and move their centurions into the valley. I’ve seen it happen before, in Montana, and it was ugly. They catch somebody tagging a building, they’re likely to throw them in prison for a year to set an example.”

The diners began muttering angrily amongst themselves. Sue went pale and bit her lip, avoiding Calder’s gaze. She definitely knew what her son had been up to.

“Mayor Tompkins is holding an emergency town meeting tonight to address this, but in the meantime, everyone here needs to cool down. If you have a problem with an ice dragon, come to my office and fill out a complaint, don’t go try to deal with it yourself. And Sue, I need to talk to Billy. Where is he right now?”

“You aren’t arresting my son,” Sue said angrily, and her face went scaly. A curl of smoke drifted from her nostrils.

“Now what makes you think I’d be looking to arrest him?” Calder asked coolly.

“You’re always picking on him. Any time someone burns a little graffiti, you blame him.”

Calder leaned in and lowered his voice slightly, but not much. “Sue, this is beyond my control. If the Dragon Elders catch him in the act, with his record, he won’t do one year, he’ll do five, and you can throw all the temper tantrums you want, it won’t change a thing.” Her eyes widened in anger. “And furthermore, when you run in and bail him out every time he gets in trouble, you are not doing him any favors. If you’d swatted his tail when he acted up as a dragonling, you wouldn’t be facing these problems now.”

“I know where he is,” piped up one of the customers, a dragon blacksmith whose nickname was Blackie. When Sue glared at him, he glared right back. “What? I’m not going to see the whole town get in trouble just because you can’t control your kid. Him and his friends are at the old quarry off Pineview Road.”

“You can just take your business elsewhere,” Sue snapped.

“I will,” Blackie said, setting his coffee cup down on the counter. He stood up. “You think you’re the only coffee shop in town?”

He headed for the door, and several other customers got up and followed him, giving Sue dirty looks. She glared at them defiantly as they left, but once they were gone, Calder saw a worried look on her face. Many fire dragons were wealthy, but she wasn’t. And Blackie was right – there were plenty of other places for them to drink their coffee. If she started scaring off her regulars, she would be in bad shape.

Great. And this was just Henrik’s first day in town.

Sue quickly headed towards the door that led to her office in the back. “Barnum, stay here and make sure she doesn’t call Billy and warn him,” Calder said.

Barnum sighed and nodded. He was the least confrontational dragon Calder had ever seen; he really wasn’t cut out for police work.

Sue’s eyes flew open wide and she stomped her foot. “You have no right. I can call whoever I want!” That was accompanied by a small blast of flame shooting from her mouth.

“You can also go to jail for obstructing,” Calder said. “Then who’ll bail your son out?”

Calder turned and headed out the door. “You’re the worst Principe we’ve ever had!” Sue yelled after him as he left. “And yes, I know you’re the first one we’ve ever had, and you’re still the worst! The
worst
!”

Calder ignored her, hopping in his squad car and heading out to the old quarry.

The quarry had been abandoned decades before. The teenagers liked to go out there and jump off the craggy granite clifftops in human form, then play chicken, seeing who could wait the longest to shift before they hit the bottom. Morons. One of these days, he’d be scraping the loser off the rocky floor.

When he got there, he saw Olivia standing by her car with a smirk of satisfaction on her face, and Billy and his best friend Leo were standing by Billy’s motorcycle, swearing and shouting at Olivia. The bike was encased in ice.

“I’m outta here,” Leo said when he saw Calder, and he turned and ran. When he got a few dozen feet away, he shifted into a smallish red dragon and flapped off, soaring over the pine trees.

“So you did know who vandalized our sign,” Olivia said accusingly as Calder walked up.

Billy looked at his bike, looked in the direction Leo had gone, and red scales flowed over his skin as if he were about to bolt too.

“Don’t do it,” Calder warned him. “I’m a lot faster than you.”

Calder turned his attention to Olivia. “I didn’t say I didn’t know who it was. I’m here investigating, and you should have left it to me. You can’t take the law into your own hands. I’m going to have to arrest you now.”

Olivia spluttered with anger as he pulled a pair of cuffs from his belt. Then, glaring, she turned her back to let him snap the cuffs on her wrists.

“Are you enjoying yourself?” she said coldly.

“Far more than I should.” He stifled a grin.

“So you’re a kinky son of a bitch,” she said in a low, angry voice. “What a surprise.”

He glanced down at her arm as he snapped the cuffs on and was surprised to see that part of the skin on her upper right arm looked sooty, as if she’d been burned by a fire dragon. That would have to have been a pretty bad burn, too. It looked as if it was healing slowly. If it had been less serious, it would have healed within minutes or hours.

“You all right?” he asked her.

“Yep, accidentally frosted myself,” she said, avoiding his eyes. An obvious lie – he could tell that it was fire rather than frost damage, and there was no way she would have accidentally burned herself in that spot. But if she didn’t want to tell him about it, he couldn’t force her.

He leaned in close to whisper in her ear, so Billy wouldn’t hear him. “If anyone ever hurts you and you need protection, please tell me,” he said to her in a low voice. “I’m not kidding.”

“Hey, bitch, look who’s going to jail!” Billy taunted Olivia gleefully. “Not me, that’s who!”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Calder said, whipping out a second pair of cuffs and stalking over to him.

“What? What the hell you arresting me for?” Billy raged at him. “You saw what she did! That bitch froze my bike! She owes me!”

“And you owe the town of North Lyndvale for their sign. That’s going to cost thousands of dollars to replace. You think your mom’s got that kind of money? Especially after half her customers walked out today because of you.”

“Because of me?” Billy whined as Calder shoved him into the back seat of his cruiser. “What are you talking about?”

Calder shook his head. “I’ll let her explain it to you.”

Calder helped Olivia climb into the front seat. Normally all prisoners rode in the back, but he didn’t want to force her to sit next to Billy. He wasn’t worried about her safety; he was worried she’d bite Billy’s face off.

They drove back to the police station in silence. It was a brand-new brick building with a peaked roof and marble steps out front, still smelling of paint and Lysol.

Olivia and Billy were booked and escorted to their cells, while Calder settled into his office and dealt with a barrage of phone calls. The hand-crafted oak furniture, courtesy of the City of South Lyndvale, had already been moved in. Calder had put up a few paintings of famous dragons and stocked the bookshelves behind his desk with copies of human law books and the Council of Elders Codicil.

Calder’s phone rang at his desk, and he glanced at the number on caller I.D. and sighed. His mother, Tabitha Kingsley.

“Yes, mother?” he answered, not bothering to hide his annoyance. He and his family had a strained history. Calder had pretty much hatched from the shell with a strong sense of right and wrong – and he’d been born into a family of jewel thieves. Reformed now, sure, and they owned a respectable and highly successful jewelry store in town that featured the work of dragon jewelers from all over the world…but how reformed were they really? Calder often wondered.

“I hear that a dragon Overseer named Henrik Vromme is in town,” she said.

“You hear correctly.”

“I just wanted to give you the heads up that he might be a little hostile towards you,” Tabitha said. “I actually dated him in college, and then threw him over for your father.”

Calder groaned. “Great. Is there any part of my life that you aren’t going to make difficult?”

“I can’t think of one. Good luck with your new job. Kelly made me say that. Cheers!” And she hung up. Kelly was married to Calder’s brother, Gabriel, and Tabitha adored her.

Billy’s mother got there about half an hour later, with a bail bondsman by her side.

Sue quickly bailed her son out, muttering resentfully. As they walked out the station’s front door, Calder saw her cuff him on the head, hard, and he could hear her yelling at him. Well, she shouldn’t have bailed him out, but at least she was giving him what-for, for once in her life. Billy certainly looked surprised – and resentful.

The door banged open a few minutes later, and the Principe of North Lyndvale, Quinton Teague, stormed in. He barreled past the secretary sitting outside Calder’s office and stormed through the door.

“You’ve arrested my daughter,” he snapped. “And I’m going to make you pay for it.”