Breathing Fire (Heretic Daughters) (22 page)

Christian stood up slowly, rubbing his jaw.
 
“What on earth, Jillian?”
 
he asked me, sounding wounded.
 

I covered up quickly.
 
“Any guy wearing makeup deserves to get punched,” I told him with a smirk.
 
There were gasps from goth boys in makeup all around the room.
 
They were all looking at me, expressions of either fear or anger on their faces.
 
Except for Luke.
 
I noticed he was sending me even more smitten looks from beneath his mascara coated lashes.
 
I heard Lynn fail to stifle a giggle across the room, where I saw the strange dragon had joined her and Caleb at the bar.

Suddenly the strange dragon-kin got everyone’s attention as he pointed at one of the goth boys.
 
“It’s him.”
 
The stranger’s voice was deep and certain.
 
He walked towards the terrified goth kid.
 
“Everyone else in the room had a proper response to what was going on.
 
They all looked surprised or scared.
 
This one showed no emotion until I pointed him out just now.”
 
His accent was faint and asian.
 
His english was very fluent, but still not his first language.

“Adam,” Lynn identified the goth kid.

 
Adam didn’t even try to run away when the strange dragon approached him.
 
He just held up his hands, saying, “Ok, ok, you got me.”
 
He was addressing Lynn.
 
“I work for your Uncle Villi.
 
He sent me here to spy on you.
 
What are you gonna do about it?
 
I know you don’t hurt humans.”
 
His tone was belligerent.
 
Stupid kid.

I beat the strange dragon to the kid.
 
I slapped Adam hard across the face.
 
Okay, it was a bitch slap.
 
They seemed to be going around.
 
But it floored him.
 
Beating up humans was no fun.
 
They were just too soft.
 
But I was never one to balk at what had to be done.
 
And any human who was unfortunate enough to be mixed up with my uncle had far worse things coming to him.
 
“I’ll tell you what we’ll do.
 
We will torture you until you tell us everything you know.
 
Sound fun?”
 
As I spoke, I hauled him to his feet.
 
I dragged him across the room by his hair.
 
He whimpered.
 
I threw him roughly into a chair.
   

“K, what the hell is going on, guys?” Christian asked, confused.
 
“Everyone is acting crazy.
 
Anyone gonna tell me why?”

I ignored him, focusing on Lynn’s traitor.
 
Caleb came up quietly beside me, speaking softly.
 
“I’ll do this, if you don’t mind.
 
I think we can all agree that torture is more my specialty than yours.”

I just raised my brows at him, but I was secretly relieved.
 
I waved a hand at Adam, taking several steps back.
 
“By all means, have at it.”
 
I started to pace.
 
I stopped mid-pace, addressing Adam again.
 
“How old are you?”

Adam looked puzzled, but answered automatically.
 
“Twenty.”

I nodded.
 
“Good.
 
Twenty, and too stupid to live long.
 
I’m not too comfortable torturing anyone younger than that.
 
Congratulations, you are of torturing age.”
 
My tone was off-hand, even casual, but I felt none of it.
 
You couldn’t look sick to your stomach, or scared out of your mind, when you were trying to intimidate someone into telling what you needed to know.
 
I wasn’t nonchalant about torturing some dumb kid.
 
I wasn’t even okay with it.
 
But the thought that Villi might be moving to ambush us at any moment quickly dispelled me of any notion to take it easy on our one available source of information.

Caleb gave me a slight, chilling smile.
 
His eyes were scary right then.
 
He was going to enjoy this way too much.

“I’m over twenty,” Luke said quietly, but his voice reached us all.
 
He was still giving me that cow-eyed stare.

I just frowned at him, and for some reason I felt myself blush.
 
I pointed at him.
 
“You just keep quiet,” I ordered him.
 
He looked down submissively, a faint smile on his lips.
 
Dammit, it was impossible to discourage someone who liked to be mistreated.
 

Lynn giggled.
 
It was a stark contrast to the rest of the room.
 
Most of the goths around the room were sobbing.
 
Guess they didn’t see the humor.
 
This was probably the most horrifying thing they’d ever seen.
 
Lucky them.
 
This little scene was more civilized than even the most tame family dinners of my childhood.
 
At least I never had to wonder why I was so fucked up
.
 
It would have been a miracle if I wasn’t.

“Have you considered torturing him in a different room, perhaps?” the strange dragon was asking Caleb.
 
“Or do you prefer the crying audience?”

Caleb eyed him coldly.
 
“I prefer it, actually.
 
Let all of them see what happens to traitors.”
 
Caleb addressed the room at large.
 
“If anyone speaks of anything they’ve seen tonight, far worse will happen to them.
 
And if I’m really put out, to their families as well.”

I shook off that sobering picture.
 
The scariest thing about that speech was that Caleb always meant what he said.
 
It chilled me that I couldn’t have stopped him from doing what he’d just said if I tried.

I addressed Adam, wanting to get on with it.
 
“Have you spoken to Villi since you arrived here?”
 

Lynn giggled at me.
 
“Her hair looks like purple cotton candy,” I heard her say to someone.

I glowered at her.

Adam just smirked at me.
 
Stupid, stupid kid.
 
I guess he would have to be, to be a human mixed up with Villi.
 
“Um, I’m gonna have to say no.”

The strange dragon casually gripped Adam’s shoulders, effectively holding him in place.
 

With no expression on his face, Caleb reached over, casually snapping Adam’s right index finger completely back.
 
It made a sick popping noise.
 
It sat at that horrible angle for a moment before anyone reacted.
 
One of the sobbing kids sounded like they were throwing up.
 
Adam held up his finger in horror, screaming.
 

“Okay, same question, but without the attitude,” Caleb him told him, deadpan.

Adam shook his head vehemently.
 
“No, no. I swear I haven’t.
 
Remember, you searched me and took my phone before we came out here.”

“What have you told Villi about us?” Lynn asked, her words slurred.
 
That strange little broken finger seemed to have cured her of the giggles.
 
Torture was a major buzz-kill, to be sure.

He just kept shaking his head.
 
“Just the location of your shop, and your house.”
 
Caleb snapped his thumb this time.
 
More screaming and sobbing rocked through the room.
 

“Try again?” I prompted in a bored tone.

“I-I told them about Lynn’s following.
 
How I thought most of them were loyal.
 
I told them who her lieutenants were.”
 
He paused for too long, and Caleb snapped his pinky this time.

“More,” Caleb said curtly.

“I-I told them about you, though I don’t know what the fuck you are.”
 
He addressed Caleb.
 
His panicked gaze swung toward Christian.
 
He nodded in his direction.
 
“I told them about him, though I don’t think they believed me.”

“How many does my Uncle have with him?” Lynn asked.
 
I understood her concern.
 
His ‘them’ answers were alarming, to say the least.

He shook his head over and over.
 
“Dude, I have no idea.
 
I can’t tell one of those things from another.
 
They don’t tell me stuff like that.”

“What things?” Christian spoke up suddenly.

Adam just laughed at him like a lunatic.
 
“You don’t even get it, do you, dude?
 
You’re even more in the dark than I am.
 
How can you not see that you’re surrounded by-”
 
Suddenly, surreally, his head just disappeared, pieces of it decorating the wall behind him.
 
It hadn’t even been a conscious action, my hand had just found the gun in my ankle holster, aimed and shot on pure instinct.
 
He had said enough incriminating things in front of Christian.
 
The sound in the echoing room was deafening for a moment.

I bent down, calmly re-holstering my gun.
 
The entire room was staring at me, mouths hanging open, jaws slack.
 
Understandable, I supposed.
 
I swear a few of the goths started putting curses on me.

Christian was the most shocked of the four of us, of course, since he couldn’t know the reason I’d needed to silence Adam so immediately, and so permanently.
 
“What the hell, Jillian?” he was shouting over my ringing ears.
 
“I can’t believe you shot him when he was giving us information.
 
Was that really necessary?”

I just shrugged, acting nonchalant.
 
“He was just wasting our time.”

Christian threw his hands up in the air.
 
“And here I thought Caleb was our resident sociopath.”

I looked at Caleb.
 
“Yeah, Caleb.
 
Where were you on that one?” I asked him, an edge to my voice.
 
What was his angle?
 
Usually he was the fastest draw.
 
I was good with guns, but they weren’t even my best weapon.
 
I needed a blade to show my real talent.
 
And guns, well, they were Caleb’s passion.
 
Caleb looked at a solid piece like most men would look at a lover.
 
Was he messing with us?

But he was studying me thoughtfully.
 
He seemed to be as surprised as the rest of us that I’d beat him to the punch.
 

“That was impressive speed, considering that you were drawing from your ankle.
 
You may actually be faster than me,” Caleb’s tone was speculative, making my trigger finger start itching.
 
Knowing Caleb, he was considering drawing on me just to find out…

“He was full of lies from our uncle, Christian,” I said, turning away from Caleb, effectively ending the tense standoff.
 
“Villi was using him to try to hurt Lynn, and I told you only the nice parts of what that monster did to my sister.
 
We could have never let him go.
 
He would have led them to us.”

“Ok, ok, just someone needs to explain to me a little more of what’s going on here.
 
I hate being kept in the dark.”
 
As Christian spoke, his phone started ringing, along with Caleb’s.
 
I found this to be an odd coincidence.
   

The connection made sense a moment later, when I realized that it was a call from the druids.
 
Tonight was the night.
 
Time for a Necro roast.

“Maybe it wasn’t such a bad night for Lynn to get sloshed,” I muttered under my breath.

“I will take care of cleanup, and watch over Lynn’s children,” the strange dragon spoke into the charged silence.
 
We had been absorbed in thoughts of prep and battle.
 

“Who the fuck are you?” I asked him, finally.
 

He gave me a little mysterious smile.
 
“I’m Drake. And you are Lynn’s sister, Jillian.
 
You have a very strange choice of lovers.
 
Where I’m from, your affair with the druid King would be considered quite taboo.”

I just blinked at him.
 
I really, really didn’t like Drake.
 
The feeling was instant and almost blinding.
 
He knew way too much about me, about us, and I didn’t care to hear anyone’s observations about my love life, not even someone whom I didn’t hate on sight.
 
I didn’t trust him, but if he was staying and we were leaving, I decided to deal with the problem later.
 
One thing was for certain;
 
We wouldn’t be coming back here until I knew more about the bastard.

I smiled at him rather unpleasantly.
 
It was no coincidence that he had rolled into town at the same time as my family.
 
It simply couldn’t be.
 

I addressed Lynn, knowing even as I did so that she was in no condition to help me just then.
 
“What were you thinking, bringing him here?”