Breathing Fire (Heretic Daughters) (6 page)

“Sounds like you guys need a safe house.
 
I have a few around town.
 
All that is mine is at your disposal.”

I inclined my head in thanks.
 
“I’ll let you know if we do.
 
Gonna play it by ear.
 
Everything might turn out fine.”

“Oh, shit!
 
I almost forgot to tell you.
 
Since we’re on the subject of strange happenings.
 
My sources tell me that the druid Council is negotiating a meeting with the dragons.
 
And it’s here!
 
In bloody Las Vegas!”
 
His eyes were shinning with anticipation as he spoke.
 
This was about as excited as I’d ever seen him.
 
“Gives me a slayer hard-on, to tell you the truth.
 
I’m half-tempted to ambush one of them.
 
Though it’s an interesting move, considering the druids were just asking me for help, don’t you think?
 
Not sure I can be in the same city with a dragon without letting my instincts take over.”
 
He was grinning, and he did
not
look harmless now.

I grinned back at him.
 
He didn’t notice my hands trembled slightly as I set down my glass.
 
“I’m sure you can contain yourself.
 
But it is interesting timing, to say the least.
 
I wonder if they are trying to ally themselves with the druids.”

“I’m not too worried about that.
 
Dragons are a savage, violent lot.
 
They think they’re gods, above all laws.
 
And druids live and breath to keep the peace.
 
Those monsters won’t respect druid law.
 
They may want something from the druids, but mark my words, they won’t hold up their end of the bargain.”

“I’ve heard that about them.”

“Oh, yeah.
 
As an extra precaution for their visit to town, I had a friend of mine install a new toy he’s been working on.
 
You probably didn’t notice it, but as you step through the front door, you get scanned now.”
 
He smiled smugly, very pleased with himself.

“Scanned for what?”
 
I raised a brow, sipping my wheat-grass concoction.
 

“It’s a dragon detector.”
 
I nearly choked on my drink.
 
“It scans anyone who walks through the door.
 
If a dragon ever tries to come in, it’ll alert me with a siren that will bring the house down, and set off a very impressive caging mechanism.”
 
He sighed heavily.
 
“Wishful thinking really, one of them coming to me.
 
But a man can dream.”

My eyes were saucers as I spoke.
 
“Sounds pretty dubious to me.
 
I think you should get your money back.”

He looked crestfallen.
 
“Yeah?”

I nodded.
 
“Sounds like you need a bullshit detector more than a dragon detector to me.”

He smiled sardonically.
 
“Well, I didn’t say he was a
good
friend.
 
C’est la vie, right?”

“So when does the necro roast happen?
 
And how can I get in on it?”
 
I changed the subject to something we would both undoubtedly enjoy more.
 

“Man!
 
I wish you could.
 
They haven’t given me a time.
 
Everything is still up in the air, I think.”
 
He gave me a serious look.
 
“You gonna pay Dom a visit?
 
I bet if you ask him nicely, he’ll keep you off those rosters.”

I cringed, and ran a hand down my face.
 
“I don’t know.
 
It’s a bad idea, for all kinds of reasons, but it’s starting to look like a lesser evil.”

He whistled softly.
 
“What I’d pay to be a fly on that wall.”
 

I felt sick to my stomach at even the thought of that meeting.
 
I couldn’t decide whether to put it off or just get it over with.
 
For today, at least, I was definitely putting it off.
 
On the other hand, I was gonna be bruised up and crippled until then.

I suddenly noticed the time on the microwave clock across the room.
 
“Ack, I’m gonna be late for my other client.”
 
I got up and went to gather my things.
 
Christian walked me to the door, saying,
 
“Call me if you need anything.
 
Sounds like you might.”

“I’ll do that.
 
Oh, Lynn told me to say hi.”

“Hi.”
 

“You guys meeting for lunch this week?”
 

“Maybe. Probably,” he said cryptically.

“Ok, then, I will maybe probably join you.
 
We won’t be working the shop for awhile, so my schedule is suddenly wide open.”
 
I shielded up, stuck my tongue out at him, and walked out the door.

CHAPTER SIX

Geas

My next appointment was in Summerlin, which was easily a forty-five minute drive away.
 
I had twenty-five to get there.
 
I liked to be punctual, so the entire drive was a teeth-gnashing affair.

This client was also one of the few that I enjoyed training, though she and Christian couldn’t be more dissimilar.
 

She was a stay-at-home mom in her forties who had a compulsive eating problem.
 
Her rich husband had left her for an eighteen-year-old several years ago, and she had proceeded to eat her way to over four hundred pounds.
 

At the start of our sessions a few years ago, I had started her out with the conventional methods of weight loss.
 
I had soon learned that her need to eat when she got emotional far outweighed any discipline she may have possessed.

She was a sweet woman, and I grew to like her quickly, so it wasn’t long before I resorted to a more unconventional approach.
 
I put a very minor enchantment on her.
 
It wasn’t much, really.
 
But every time she reached for food for any reason but simple hunger, she felt a sudden and overwhelming urge to go outside and play soccer with her kids.
 
I had to tweak the enchantment slightly, when I realized she was dragging her two boys out of bed at three a.m to play outside.
 
After that, though, it worked like the charm that it was.
 

Under my very specialized training regime, Sharon had lost over two hundred and fifty pounds and was approaching the best shape of her life.

I was only five minutes late to her house, but no one answered my first couple of rings.
 
I was considering leaving, assuming she’d forgotten the appointment, when a harried looking Sharon answered the door.
 
She didn’t look at me once as she ushered me in.
 
I thought that was a little odd, but I followed her to her home gym.
 

I set her to work warming up, and she followed my orders.
 
She still hadn’t said a word.
 
“Everything all right?” I finally asked her.
 
She was stretching, and I automatically corrected her posture.

She hunched her shoulders in a shrug.
 
“Yeah, just had a bad morning.”

As the workout progressed, her mood didn’t change.
 
She seemed preoccupied, almost frightened.
 
The warning signs were all there, but I didn’t see the trap I’d sprung until four druids walked through the door.

“Jillian.”
 
Collin inclined his head to me as he entered the room.
 
Three druids I didn’t know flanked him.
 
“I had a hunch it would be you.”
 
Collin was my infamous Ex’s cousin, and one of his closest friends.
 
He was also one of the few druids I had been on friendlier terms with before the big falling out.
 
He had the raven black hair and striking blue eyes that were prominent in his family.
 
He also had the classically handsome, aristocratic features that were common to his bloodline.
 
And he was tall, as most druids were, towering well over six feet.
 
His build, however, was unusual in that he was almost too slender, a trait that the other men in his family did not share.
 
His brother, Cam, was one of the biggest men I knew, with forearms easily the size of my waist.
 
Dom fell somewhere in the middle, build-wise, but I thought he was closer to Cam’s bulky physique than Collin’s almost frail one.
 
Collin’s posture, however, was proud and elegant, which reminded me rather painfully of Dom.

“Sharon, out,” one of the druids ordered.
 
He was a sandy haired brute
 
that I didn’t recognize.
 
She didn’t look at me once as she jogged from the room.
 
I felt the familiar and bitter sting of betrayal.

I had been going over Sharon’s food journal and had it clutched in my hand.
 
I set it down slowly, tensing for a fight.

“I have to admit,” I began, “I wasn’t expecting to see more of you again so soon.”

Collin froze, looking more than a little surprised.
 
“More of us?” he asked, his tone deceptively casual.
 
“You’ll have to tell me all about that.
 
Who else have you seen?”

“Why are you here?” I shot back.

He spread his slender hands in a gesture of peace.
 
“Not for the reason you seem to think.
 
I just want to talk.”

I looked at him warily.
 
“How’d you find me here?”

He waved a hand at the druid that had ordered Sharon out.
 
“Walt here has been dating Sharon for the last few months.
 
He noticed that she had an enchantment placed on her.
 
He came to me for help to decipher just what it was.
 
When I perceived the nature of the enchantment, I asked her to describe her personal trainer.
 
The description sounded uncannily familiar.”
 
Apparently our luck had run out a few times over.
 

Collin continued.
 
“I couldn’t let an unregistered Other go unchecked.
 
So here we are.
 
How have you been, Jillian?”
 
He sounded genuinely interested in the answer.
 
Collin had always been one of the more amiable, easygoing druids.
 
His affable manner had always made him a sharp contrast to his cousin, Dom, and especially his own brother, Cam.
 
I supposed I was lucky it was Collin, and not Cam, who I was facing now.
 
Collin, unlike the three men behind him, who were looking at me with loathing, seemed to wish me no ill will.
 
Of course, I wouldn’t count on that.
 
“Why don’t we go have a seat in the other room and talk?” he asked.

I nodded agreement.
 
“You first.”
 
I followed them into the somewhat gaudy dinning room.
 
Sharon had a Vegas sense of style when it came to decorating her house, with way too much marble and gold for my taste.
 

I sat across from Collin at Sharon’s glass dinning room table.
 
I made a big stink when Walt tried to stand behind me, and they agreed to stay on their side of the room.
 
Call me paranoid.
 
Period.
 
I’m paranoid, but with good reason
.
 
Of course, that’s what all the paranoid people say.

“I can’t keep this from Dom,” Collin began.
 
It wasn’t a promising start to the conversation.
 
“But I feel that it would be better, for everyone involved, if you pay him a visit yourself.”

“Sure, I’ll do that,” I said quickly.
 

He gave me a stern look.
 
“You know I’m going to need more insurance than that.
 
I can’t let you leave here without a guarantee of some kind that you plan to either register with us now, or go talk to the Arch.”

I sighed.
 
I couldn’t get a break from anyone, it seemed.
 
“What kind of insurance did you have in mind?”

He pulled a bracelet of bones out of his pocket.
 
I recognized the item, and gave him an unfriendly look.
 
“So I’m a prisoner.”

“I can set it for twenty-four hours.
 
If you speak to Dom in that time, the geas will disappear.”

“I need at least two days.”

“Fine.
 
Two days, then.
 
But how about this.
 
If you see him within twenty-four hours, I’ll let you in on one of the biggest battles we’ve planned in decades.
 
We’re mounting a raid on one of the necro settlements.
 
They took out a rather large human town a few weeks ago.
 
We obviously need to remind them what it means to break druid law.
 
It’s gonna be a big one.”

“How ‘bout this?
 
You give me two days and let me in on it regardless.
 
And I’ll let you put that thing on my wrist without killing any of you.”

His handsome face split into a grin thick with charm.
 
“Deal.
 
I have to say, it’s good to see you, Jillian.
 
You haven’t changed a bit.”