Nice Dragons Finish Last (Heartstrikers) (18 page)

But, of course, Marci chose that moment to walk around the corner. She stopped with a gasp, her hands flying to her mouth just as Justin’s fell to the hilt of his sword. For a second, Julius thought his brother was going to attack first and ask questions later, but Justin did nothing of the sort. He did something much worse.

“Well, well, well,” he said an innuendo-laden voice loud enough to be heard for blocks. “Is that
your
human?”

And that was when Julius began praying that Chelsie
was
watching, because a quick death from behind was starting to sound very nice indeed.

Chapter 7

“S
he’s surprisingly hot,” Justin went on, nodding in approval. “Good job, Julius. Didn’t know you had it in you.”

Julius flashed Marci an apologetic look before grabbing his brother and yanking him down with a strength he’d never known he had. “She’s not
my
human,” he whispered frantically. “She’s
a
human, and she’s helping me. She also doesn’t know what we
are
.”

Any sane dragon would have gotten the hint after that and shut up. Justin, of course, paid no attention whatsoever.

He pushed out of Julius’s hold and walked down the alley, coming to a stop in front of Marci with his legs apart and his hands on his hips like a draconic Conan the Barbarian. “You, girl,” he said. “What’s your name?”

Marci shot a nervous glance at Julius, which he couldn’t return thanks to the palm he was currently slapping against his forehead. “Um, I’m Marci Novalli.”

Justin nodded like this was acceptable and stuck out his hand. “Justin, Knight of the Mountain and Fifth Blade of Bethesda. You know, you don’t look half bad for a human.”

“Thanks? I think?” Marci said, shaking Justin’s offered hand like it was an unexploded land mine. “I’m guessing you’re Julius’s brother?”

“His o
lder
brother,” Justin said pointedly.

“By two minutes,” Julius snapped, cutting between them before this situation could finish going from bad to worse and move on to catastrophic. “Sorry, Marci, can I borrow Justin for a sec?”

She backed off at once, putting her hands up with clear relief. “All yours. Sorry I interrupted. I’m just going to go back to the car. You guys reconnect or whatever.”

Justin watched her walk away with an appreciative ogle at her backside. “You have unexpectedly good taste,” he said, turning back to Julius. “But do you really have time to be playing around with humans? Mother’s going to eat you soon if you don’t start showing some initiative.”

“I’m working on it,” Julius said. “And Marci is an integral part of that, which is why you need to
shut up
before you get her killed.”

“What are you so worked up about? Lots of dragons have humans. Just keep her on a tight leash and you’ll be fine.”

Julius closed his eyes, wishing he could close his ears. This was
exactly
why his brother couldn’t stay. Five minutes with him and Marci would have to be stupid not to guess the truth. Of course, given five minutes, Justin would probably manage to insult her so badly she’d be ready to turn them both in to Algonquin for the bounty. Julius half wanted to turn Justin in himself already, but while he wasn’t feeling it at the moment, Justin was usually one of the few brothers he actually liked, which was why he decided to nip this in the bud as nicely as possible.

“Listen, Justin,” he said in a calm, measured voice. “I really do appreciate you coming all this way to support me. It means a lot, but this isn’t your kind of operation. I’m doing a delicate job for Ian, and—”

“What job?”

It would be more work to put Justin off than to tell him, so Julius quickly explained the situation with Svena and Katya, going to the shaman party, and how he’d come to be standing in front an empty commuter deck in the middle of the night.

“So let me get this straight,” Justin said when he’d finished. “A human gave you a false address, and you let him get away with it?”

“It’s not like that,” Julius said quickly. “I don’t think Lark did it on purpose. Katya probably just gave him a dummy address to keep people off her trail. She
is
on the run.”

“No excuse,” his brother growled, popping his knuckles. “He lied to us, he has to pay. I say we go back there and squeeze him until something useful pops out.”

“I’m not doing that!”

Justin gave him a disgusted look. “Why? Because it’s not
nice
?”

“Because it would be pointless,” Julius said. “Look, if Lark was trying to trick me, he’s long gone by now, and if he wasn’t, then he doesn’t know anything more than he’s already said. Either way, hunting him down isn’t going to help. We don’t need violence, we need a professional who knows what they’re doing. There are guys who make their living tracking people who don’t want to be found. I know one, actually.”

“That’s convenient,” Justin said. “What’s his clan?”

“He’s not in a clan. He’s human, one of my old gaming buddies.”

Justin rolled his eyes. “What is it with you and humans?”

“I
like
humans,” Julius reminded him. “Anyway, he might be able to get us a lead on Katya using the picture Lark gave me. I just need to get some money together for his fee and—”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Justin said, putting up his hands. “You’re going to
pay
him?”

Julius blinked. “Of course. He’s a professional.”

“He’s a
human
,” his brother snapped. “Humans serve us. Get that through your skull. You’re a Heartstriker, a
dragon
, an ancient and fearsome predator. You should be making people fall at your feet for the honor of doing your bidding, not
paying
them, and definitely not letting them lie to you without repercussions.” He turned away with a huff that sent a thin line of black smoke curling from between his lips. “This is exactly why Mother kicked you out, you know.”

“Well, what else am I supposed to do?” Julius cried. “Fly around bellowing for Katya to come out and fight me?”

“You could go back to that party and start shaking down humans,” Justin said. “She’s supposed to be with an alligator shaman, right? Someone there knows him, so stop being a pushover and go make them talk.”

Julius paused. Going after the alligator shaman wasn’t such a bad idea, actually. Still. “I’m not going to interrogate a bunch of drunk mages,” he growled. “No one’s going to be intimidated by a
sealed
dragon any—”

A loud, pained squeal shot through the air, making both brothers jump. Justin recovered immediately, but Julius was still reeling when he whirled around to see Marci standing beside her car. Her right arm was out in front of her, like she’d just finished throwing an underhanded pitch, and the first bracelet on her wrist was glowing like a spotlight in the dark. That was all Julius caught before he started to run.

He got halfway across the street before he remembered to drop his speed to a believably human rate. He still made it to Marci’s side in seconds, hands up and ready to take on whatever it was they were fighting. But there were no goons waiting in the shadows when he reached her, no armed thugs threatening to attack. Instead, Marci jogged over to the curb and bent down to grab something black, furry, and unmoving out of the storm drain.

“What is that?”

The sharp question made him jump, and Julius looked up to see Justin standing right beside him. Naturally, he wasn’t winded at all from the run, though he did look a little disgusted by the thing in Marci’s hand. For once, the brothers were in agreement. From what Julius could make out, it looked like Marci was holding a rat the size of a terrier, but no rat he’d ever seen had fangs like that. Or five beady eyes, all of which were still twitching as Marci hoisted the thing aloft like a prize fish.

“It’s a crater vole,” she announced proudly. “I’ve never seen one this big!”

Julius recoiled in horror. “And you’re
touching
it? I thought they were poisonous.”

“Oh, very,” Marci said. “Why do you think I roasted it first? Well, microwaved, to be precise.” She nodded to the first bracelet on her wrist, a blue plastic ring which was still steaming slightly. “The Thaumaturgical code of safety and ethics forbids the use of magical combustion in urban environments, which eliminates most combat fire spells. So I created a variation on the college staple ‘No-Microwave Microwave’ spell that does basically the same thing, only without the actual fire part.”

Julius gaped at her.
“Why?”

“Because the microwave spell is horribly underutilized as a mere cooking charm,” she replied authoritatively. “As you see, the weaponization possibilities of a spell that instantly boils water particles
inside
organic matter are potentially—”

“No, no, I understand that part,” he said. “I meant, why did you randomly kill a crater vole?”

Marci blinked at him. “For the bounty, of course. Crater voles are an invasive, non-native species. DFZ Animal Control pays three dollars for every one you bring in.”

“Hold up,” Justin said, stabbing his finger at the smoking mutant rat in her hands. “You killed that thing for
three dollars
?”

“Hey, three dollars is three dollars,” Marci said, hefting the heavy carcass as she walked back to her car.

Justin stomped after her. “But three dollars isn’t even worth the drive to turn it in. Why not go after the bigger bounties?”

“Because I don’t want to die,” she answered, grabbing a trash bag out of her trunk and shoving the dead vole inside. “And maybe three dollars isn’t worth it to
you
, but when you’re broke, you can’t afford to leave money just waddling around on the side of the road.”

Julius heard the rumble of his brother’s reply, but he wasn’t actually paying attention to the argument anymore. He was too distracted by the storm drain Marci had yanked the crater vole out of. Specifically, he was staring at the deep cuts in pavement around the drain’s metal grate.

From across the street, you couldn’t see them at all. Standing directly over the storm drain, however, the grooves were impossible to miss, and obviously man-made. This was no natural cracking. Someone had deliberately cut a thin line around the edge of the drainage grate with a cement saw. It wasn’t until he’d squatted down for a better look, though, that Julius understood why.

“Marci,” he called. “Can you come over here, please?”

He heard a trunk slam, and then the loud slap of Marci’s boots as she stomped over. “I can’t
believe
that jerk is related to you. And where does he get off wearing a
sword
? What century does he think this is?”

Julius wasn’t touching that question with a ten foot pole, so he changed the subject instead, pointing down at the cut in the pavement and the thin copper strip covered with etched markings he’d spotted at the bottom. “Is that a ward?”

Tirade forgotten, Marci squatted down beside him, squinting through what Julius suddenly realized was probably very bad light for a human. “I think it is,” she said. “But it’s a really weird one.”

“A shaman ward?” he prompted, holding his breath.

She nodded. “Without question. No Thaumaturge would be caught dead putting down notation that sloppy.”

He could have hugged her. “This is it!”

She gave him a strange look. “This is what?”

“Lark didn’t give me the wrong address,” he said, pointing at the storm drain, which was located directly in front of the parking deck, right where Lark’s address said it would be. “They’re not in the Underground, they’re
underground
. The shamans we’re looking for are in the sewers! Right here!”