Nice Dragons Finish Last (Heartstrikers) (53 page)

After that, the guards didn’t say a word. Not about Bob’s parking or the apparent dead body he dragged out of his back seat and tossed over his shoulder like a bloody sack of flour. They didn’t even comment on the trail of ashy dirt the three of them tracked into the fancy elevator, or the pigeon that quietly swooped out of the car to land on Bob’s head. It was a mark of just how surreal Marci’s life had gotten that riding in an elevator in one of the nicest buildings she’d ever seen with three dragons didn’t even strike her as notable anymore. She was mostly worried about Julius, who was starting to look terrifyingly pale.

Bob stopped them at the fiftieth floor, leaving a little trail of blood on the carpet behind him as he carried Julius down the tastefully appointed hall to one of the building’s corner units. The door opened before he got there, revealing yet another fantastically beautiful woman with perfectly dyed blond hair and striking green eyes, giving Marci pause. Just how many Heartstrikers were there, anyway?

“Brohomir,” the new dragon said breathlessly, ducking her head in a little bow. “This is such an honor. I was not expecting the Great Seer of the Heartstrikers. What can I do for…” She stopped suddenly, eyes flicking to the body on Bob’s shoulder. “Is that
Julius?
”

“Indeed it is,” Bob said, shoving his way into the immaculate apartment behind her. “Hello, Jessica! No need for pleasantries. We’re just here to borrow your medical degree.”

“For Julius?” she said skeptically.

“An excellent medical deduction, seeing how he’s the one bleeding on your carpet,” Bob replied. “Now are you going to tell me where to put him, or should I just choose a spot?”

He looked at her for an answer, but the dragon seemed to have lost her ability for speech. Her green eyes had turned as round as cue balls as they traveled from Bob to Marci and then to Katya, where they got stuck. When the silence had stretched on too long, Bob shrugged and started for the white, incredibly expensive-looking couch in the middle of her living room.

He was about to drop a very bloody Julius on the cushions when Jessica cried, “No!” The threat to her furniture seemed to have woken her up, because she burst into motion, marching quickly through the living room and down the hall that led to the rest of the apartment. “This way. I’ll look at him immediately.”

Smiling, Bob followed his sister, Julius’s body bouncing on his shoulder. Marci hurried after them, leaving Katya to shut the door, blocking the view of the curious neighbors who’d come out to see what all the fuss was about.

***

Julius woke up slowly, easing into consciousness like he would into a too-hot bath. Fortunately, coming back wasn’t nearly as bad as he’d feared. He felt clean and dry, and there was something on his chest that, though itchy and constricting, was much better than the painful mess he’d passed out to.

Encouraged, he slid his hand under the sheets to investigate and immediately encountered the familiar softness of medical gauze. Bandages, then. Also sheets, which meant he was probably in a
bed
. That was a definite improvement over the back of Bob’s car, worth checking out, and so, with a deep breath, Julius cracked his eyes open.

He was in a bedroom. That much wasn’t surprising, given the bed, but what
was
surprising was that he recognized it. The elegant beige and white room was one of Jessica’s guest bedrooms. Bob must have brought him to their sister for medical treatment after he’d passed out. That would explain the expert bandage job, and why he’d been upgraded from the couch. Seers always got the best stuff.

After a few groggy tries, Julius managed to sit up with relatively little pain. He was contemplating giving standing a go when the door opened and Marci burst into the room.

“Oh, thank goodness,” she said. “You’re finally awake.”

He smiled at the clear relief in her voice, but before he could ask any of the pertinent questions—how he’d gotten here, what had happened, was she all right—Marci flung herself onto the bed and hugged him tight.

She kept her arms on his shoulders to avoid his injuries, but Julius wouldn’t have cared if she’d crushed them. The feel of her around him would have been worth the pain. This was still lovely, though, and after a few seconds, he tentatively returned the gesture, putting his arms loosely around her waist as he breathed her in.

There were no tears this time, thankfully, just Marci and the distinctive scent of Jessica’s fancy soap. She’d showered and changed since he’d last seen her, but the pale lemon sundress she was wearing must have been Jessica’s, because it didn’t fit Marci at all in size or style. She was beautiful in it, though. Beautiful and alive and soft with her body pressed against his so firmly, he could feel the racing thrum of her heartbeat. And reckless as it was, Julius really,
really
wished that she would kiss him again. Right now. Instead, she pulled away.

“Sorry,” she muttered, dropping her eyes. “Got carried away. The others kept acting like your injuries were nothing, but I swear you almost died a few times back there, and…” she trailed off with an emotional sigh. “I’m just really,
really
happy you’re okay.”

“Me too,” Julius said softly, fighting the urge to sigh himself. That was quite possibly the nicest, most beautiful thing anyone had ever said to him, and he took a moment to revel in it while she checked his bandages.

“Wow, you
do
heal fast,” she said, tucking the gauze back into place. “Your skin’s already closed over. How are you feeling?”

Not nearly so good now that she wasn’t hugging him. “Not bad,” he said. “Almost normal, actually. Where’s Bob?”

“He left half an hour ago,” Marci replied, glancing nervously over her shoulder at the door. “I really wish he’d stuck around, though. Things are getting tense out there.”

That put Julius on alert. “What’s going on?”

“I couldn’t explain it if I tried. You’d better come see for yourself. Can you stand?”

Between the two of them, they managed to get him to his feet. Once he was up, the remaining grogginess cleared quickly, and he started looking around for something to wear. Unfortunately, his shirt was now nothing but bloody scraps, and he wasn’t about to ask Jessica for a spare. Going out bare-chested felt crass, though, so he settled for draping one of Jessica’s decorative throw blankets over his shoulders like a shawl.

When he was decent enough to face company, he let Marci help him into the hall, breathing deep to try to get an early warning for whatever was waiting. He caught the scent just as they turned the corner into the living room, and swallowed his groan just in time.

The apartment was full of dragons. Ian and Svena were sitting on the couch, the former watching with carefully veiled interest while the latter glared ice-cold daggers at Katya, who was standing by the window like she wanted to jump out of it. Jessica was in the kitchen, making drinks and looking like she wanted to throw the lot of them out the window, or at least out of her apartment. Her head snapped up when she heard Julius coming, and she went straight for him like a charging shark, yanking him away from Marci and back into the hall.

“What were you thinking, bringing all these dragons to my doorstep?” she hissed. “That’s the White Witch in there! Are you trying to get me killed? And you’d better teach your human some manners before—”

“Don’t speak that way about Marci,” Julius said, calmly removing his arm from his sister’s grasp. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but I didn’t ask them to come. Bob brought me here, so if you have problems, take them to him. Now, I’m going to go try my best to get these dragons out of your living room.” His eyes darted past her to the tray of gin and tonics she’d been in the middle of preparing. “I’ll also take a drink. And one for Marci, too, please.”

With that, he patted his shocked sister on the shoulder and walked back into the living room to see what was going on.

Katya was waiting for him when he got there. “I’m so glad you’re up,” she said, pulling him over to stand before the dragons on the couch like he was a prisoner facing his parole board. “This is the one who saved me.”

Julius froze, eyes wide. Svena was staring at him like she was contemplating just how slowly she wanted to gut him while Ian’s face was perfectly blank and unhelpful. “Well,” he said, scrambling to pick words that might best encourage Svena not to do anything permanent. “Justin did most of the work. I—”

“Because you asked him to,” Katya said firmly, glaring at her sister. “You see? It’s just as the human reported. Julius Heartstriker rallied his human and his brother Justin, a Blade of Bethesda, to come to my aid. They fought valiantly to save my life, which Estella would have thrown away. This is why I vowed a life debt to him, and I will not revoke it.”

Julius almost choked as she finished, looking desperately between Katya, who was standing with her chin lifted defiantly, and Svena, who looked ready to murder them both. “I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” he said. “I didn’t—”

A flash of movement caught his eye, and he glanced at the kitchen to see Marci waving her hands in a frantic
play along
gesture.

“What I mean is, Katya is telling the truth,” he corrected. “I found her this afternoon and convinced her to come home, but then she was abducted by humans—”

“Who were working for Estella,” Katya cut in. “She was using me as a pawn to breed war between our clans. You know she will stop at nothing to—”

“Enough!” Svena yelled, shooting to her feet. “You will not speak so of our sister in front of outsiders!”

“I’ll speak however I like!” Katya yelled back. “I am a daughter of the Three Sisters same as you, and it was these
outsiders
who saved my life when our
sister
endangered it!”

Svena lifted her lips in a deadly snarl and began speaking rapidly in Russian. Katya responded in kind, getting into her sister’s face so aggressively, Julius worried it would come to blows. Apparently, the youngest daughter of the Three Sisters took being kidnapped by humans on the orders of the eldest very personally. The defeated, tired girl he’d seen at the diner had vanished completely, leaving behind a dragoness who was absolutely determined to get her way and more than ready to drag Julius into battle with her if necessary.

“I am through being thought of as the failure of the clan!” Katya cried, in English now. “And I am done being kept like a prisoner by my own family! My debt is mine to give, and if I choose to give it to the one who risked his life to save mine, you cannot stop me.”

Svena shot Julius a nasty look. Or she would have, but Katya got in the way, growling loud enough to rattle the coffee table’s glass top. This got Svena’s attention as nothing else had, and the dragoness flopped back down on the couch with an angry sigh. “Fine,” she snarled. “I acknowledge your stupid debt. But you are still coming home.”

“No,” Katya said, her face breaking into a wicked smile. “You just acknowledged my debt.”

“So?” Svena said. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“It has to do with everything,” Katya said proudly. “By your own words, I am now honor bound to answer the call of Heartstriker, and I can’t do that if I’m locked up in Siberia, can I?”

Svena’s ice blue eyes widened in surprise before narrowing to dangerous slits. “Very well,” she said slowly. “If you aren’t going home, then where would you live?”

“Here,” Katya said, standing tall. “I wish to remain in the DFZ.”

Julius’s breath caught.
That’s
what she was doing. This wasn’t actually about life debts or gratitude or any of that. Katya had just used the circumstances surrounding her kidnapping to modify their original plan to keep her in the DFZ. She’d also upped the ante enormously. Now that Svena had formally acknowledged the debt Katya owed to the Heartstrikers, not allowing her to stay and honor it was as good as refusing to pay. She was using her own capture to force Svena’s hand, turning her defeat into her means to victory, and the whole thing was such a beautiful twist on dragon politics that Julius couldn’t have stopped grinning if he’d tried.

Svena, however, was far less impressed. “You think I can’t see what you’re doing?” she said, her voice an icy threat. “You think to make a fool of me?”

“I don’t have to,” Katya said. “You’re making a fool of yourself if you let pride stand between you and such a good outcome for all involved. Come on, Svena. Do you really want to have to keep going back to Siberia every month to check on me? I’ve always thought that a sister who’s constantly running away is a much greater embarrassment than one who can’t use magic. This is a far superior arrangement for both of us, especially since I’ll be in a city where I shouldn’t cast anything flashy even if I could. And since I don’t want to run, you won’t have to worry about chasing me. Everybody wins.”