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I woke up with a sneezing fit, the seat belt digging into me as my chest snapped forward.

“Someone talking about you?” Morgana teased from beside me.

I wiggled my nose. “Or maybe this van smells.”

She glared back at me. “Take that back.” Her red eyes bored into me, daring me to say more.

Her van was starting to smell a little like gunpowder, but that wasn't so bad. Mostly I just wanted to tease Morgana.

My lovely drow vampire’s cheeks turned a little purple when she blushed.

I glanced into the back of the van and saw my two dragon guards snoozing away.

Sarisha was kind of cute while she was asleep. And Chloe had the biggest grin on her face, probably dreaming about our future concert date.

"How long did they last?" I asked Morgana, keeping my voice low. I remembered my first stakeout and how hard it was to stay awake.

She grinned, showing off her fangs. "They were trying to stay quiet for you. and that seems to have done them in." She looked off towards the apartment and picked up her binoculars, taking another look at the building.

I cheated, shifting my eyes so I could see further.

Up in the studio apartment, the man was putting aside his paintings. He was either making space for another project or cleaning up for a visitor. I was hoping for the latter given our job.

"Think we are about to get something interesting?" I asked Morgana.

She put down her binoculars. “I sure hope so. It would be nice if this one was easy. You remember that time we had to stake out that doctor for two whole weeks?"

I snorted. "You mean that one when we first started, when you couldn't stop sniffing me?"

"I was not sniffing." Morgana spoke a little louder than the whispered conversation we'd been having. My lovely blue vampire was blushing. I never got tired of it.

"Yes you were. Your cute little blue nose would just go like-" I tried to mimic the way Morgana’s nose twitched a little when she was sniffing me. "-And then you would pretend like it wasn't happening every time I looked back at you. By the way, that was complete abuse of your vampire speed. But I still noticed."

Her hand blurred faster than I could track and she flicked me gently in the nose. “Hush. I am more subtle than that. You only saw things when I wanted you to.” She crossed her arms, making her leather corset creak and her bust push up.

I glanced in the back, curious if Morgana’s outburst had woken the dragons. But Sarisha continued to let out cute little snores.

I grabbed Morgana’s arm and pulled her over the console, kissing her deeply. She pulled back a little at first, always putting up a bit of a fight, but then she melted into me.

Her tongue flicked into my mouth and she teased my lips with her fangs.

I could tell she wanted to taste me, and for a moment, my mind flashed back to my discussion with Ellen on bloodloords.

I broke the kiss and pushed her lips down to my neck. I was more than happy to help Morgana get stronger.

Morgana let out a little mewl of pleasure licking and kissing her favorite spot as if confirming it was okay.

“It’s fine.” I whispered, and she wasted no time. She sank her fangs in, starting to suck at my blood, her silver hair falling on me as she leaned into it.

Her venom hit me and I took a deep breath. It wasn’t like the first few times it had hit me, when I’d needed something to steady myself. I had a tolerance for it and my dragon constitution had only grown.

She pulled her fangs out and licked and kissed the two holes until they healed. “Thank you.” She put a last lingering kiss on my neck. “Do you feel okay?” She combed back her hair.

I felt like I’d had a beer, or two, but not so much that I couldn’t function. “Fine. It’s been almost a day since I last fed you. Now, what is our subject up to?” I shifted my eyes to see.

Morgana let out a husky tone as she smirked at me before lifting her binoculars. “Glad you still pay attention to my needs with all the women around you.”

“Morgana, I doubt I’d forget you for a second, even if I was drowning in women. Don’t tell the others, but you might be my favorite.” I whispered it conspiratorially.

She tried to play coy, but I noticed the way she seemed to sit up a little higher in pride. She put all her attention into watching our target to avoid letting me see her blush.

The man had put a few paintings near the windows, leaving only a few cracks for us to see what was happening.

“Think he blocked those on purpose?” I asked, paying more attention to the shadows that shined through as he moved to the door and back with friends.

“Someone else is in there.” Morgana confirmed.

“Two others.” I corrected her. “Can’t quite make out much more.”

Morgana tilted her head back and forth. “Then, I think it’s time we get a little closer? If it’s two somebodies, our little cheater is very busy.” She grabbed the camera.

I didn’t want to leave the dragonettes to wake up alone in the car. Reaching back, I shook Chloe.

She startled awake, her hand shifting into claws. “My king.” Her hand returned to normal quickly.

“We are moving in closer. We should be right back.” I stepped out of the van even as she started to unbuckle herself, but then she realized that Sarisha was still sleeping and woke the other dragon.

I figured they could catch up, heading towards Morgana. Between the two of us, we could easily handle a few humans.

Morgana had gone ahead with her camera and pulled down the fire escape of the apartment building with a single supernatural leap.

The poor ladder was rusted to hell and groaned as she jerked it down.

“Really? That was loud.” I frowned.

She shrugged and pulled a necklace out of her breasts and put it on, hiding her blue skin and silver hair. “Doubt they cared about it. Come on. Let’s see if we can’t get a few pictures.” She scampered up the ladder and onto the steps where she smiled at me in challenge, shaking her hips. Then she kept moving up the steps.

I rolled my eyes and climbed up the ladder far less gracefully and squeezed myself through the opening at the top before taking the stairs.

Morgana was having fun. She had always loved a good chase.

“My king.” Chloe hissed loudly from the bottom.

“Wait down there. We’ll be right down.” I tried to catch up to Morgana, but she was using a touch of her speed.

After going up another level, she stopped and leaned over the banister, pushing her cleavage out. “Going to have to be faster if you want any fun after this.”

I let out a low growl and hurried up the fire escape after her.

She lured me all the way to one floor above our target’s apartment and stopped, waiting impatiently. She tapped her leather booted foot on the rusty metal floor. “Took you long enough.”

I grabbed her shoulders and pulled her in for a kiss. “I’m going to make you pay for this later.”

“Like I’d want it any other way.” She turned and pressed her ass to my hips not so subtly as she turned towards our target. The angle wasn’t the best. At the moment, we were just looking at a bare piece of floor.

She got her camera out and wiggled her leather pants against me.

My claws wanted to jump out as I grabbed her hips. “Stop being a tease. We are working.”

Morgana pretended not to hear me, humming as she worked. More than once we’d had a little fun on the job. But when shit hit the fan, Morgana was always one hundred percent badass.

I squatted down and pulled out a chunk of wood and started etching a simple enchantment on the two by four. I carried a lot of them in my bracer; they were super useful on the job now that I had a decent breadth of enchantments.

They just took time I didn’t always have.

Lifting my head, I eyeballed the distance and put those measurements into the circle before finishing it with a swooping flourish of my claw. A trickle of mana flowed from me to the circle, causing it to glow softly.

“-What do you mean?” A female voice reached our ears.

Morgana snickered. “Can’t even keep his mistress happy.”

“He took it. Yesterday.” A man spoke. “Came by and took the damned thing. Which was good because it was starting to make this place stink. My wife threw a fit when she came here last time.”

“Calm down.” Another man spoke. “We have it, but you need to tell us more. The target broke out of a fucking prison. Killed three guards and then had Norton removed from his post. You lied to us; he’s not a normal fanger.”

The more that voice spoke, the surer I became that the man was Carl, the agent that had been driving the car when Norton stuffed me in that prison.

The image of his smug smile as they stuffed me in that prison riled me up.

A low growl rumbled from my throat, and Morgana put a hand on my back.

“What was that?” The man who was our target jumped and moved into view, pushing two paintings aside to peer out.

“Probably just a motorcycle.” Carl scoffed and came up behind him to put a hand on his shoulder. “Stop being so jumpy. With our friend here, we have nothing to worry about, right?”

I hissed at Morgana and crouched low. This time when I grabbed her hips, there was nothing sexy about it as I pulled her low. “That’s Carl. He was with Norton.”

“Then…” She trailed off, rerunning what we’d heard through that filter. “The woman is paranormal, and the stink is coming from… a body?” Morgana started piecing together the broader story. She looked back at where we could see Carl and the painter. “Come on.” She whispered under her breath.

I was thinking the same thing. We needed to get a visual.

“No. It isn’t safe here anymore.” The woman replied. “You two should be more cautious. Fangers are more resourceful than you think. If the dragon king escaped, that’s because you didn’t put him in a strong enough cage.”

“What does that even mean? We put him in a prison. Locked him in a concrete solitary cell.” Carl was nearly shouting at the woman now.

I could see the veins bulging on his head from where I stood.

The woman let out a bell-like laughter. “Concrete might as well be paper. I told you he is at the center of it all. He can’t be that if he isn’t strong. As for losing his post, your director overplayed his hand. But it’s okay; they are all scrambling like ants looking for you.”

She stepped into view and my heart stopped only for it to settle into frustration. She wore an oversized sweatshirt with the hood up. It was impossible to try and identify her at the moment.

But I got the feeling that she was young.

The hood shifted just enough for me to catch the bottom of her chin, but the rest of her face was cast in shadow, all the lighting behind her. “We have a problem.” She shoved her hand out and an explosion of fire roared out from it, shattering the brick side of the building and heading for Morgana and I.

I grabbed Morgana on instinct and shielded her with my body. The explosive force of the blast sent me flying into the building next to us and the little board with the enchantment was lost.

Morgana hit the bricks of a neighboring building and held onto me before we fell.

My back ached from the blast, but I still reacted and crouched into the landing, even as my knees hurt.

The painter was screaming and Carl jumped from the building as I was recovering. He ran at a dead sprint that would impress Olympic athletes.

Morgana wiped a little blood from her mouth as she looked up and I followed her gaze. The woman in the hoodie was gone, I had no idea where she went. “I’ll get the runner. Go question the painter. We can get something out of this.” She wobbled to her feet before blurring off after Carl.

“My king.” Chloe put a hand on my shoulder to stop me. “Let us.” A feral grin spread across her face, and Sarisha was already leaping up into the ruined painter’s wall and grabbing him before he could get far. She returned to the ground with him over her shoulder, pounding on her back.

“Gag him and let’s get to the car.” I grabbed the two dragons and bent over as we ran, like we were shielding ourselves.

People were screaming from the explosion and coming out of the woodworks, so we were short on time. Carrying a screaming man into a van, we would look like the bad guys.

I pushed the three of them in the back. “Hold him down. I’m getting us out of here.” Morgana was nowhere to be seen, so I checked to make sure my phone’s ringer was on as I put the van into drive.

She’d get ahold of me when she was somewhere safe. I trusted my partner entirely.

“Let go of me.” The painter struggled.

“Can’t do that.” I replied. “We are big terrible fangers you’ve been talking about. You’ve come for my people, and now you’ll deal with me.”

He looked up and met my eyes in the rearview. Whatever he saw made him nearly pee himself. “You’re the one. The dragon king.” Fear filled his voice.

I focused on the road in front of me. “Girls, I thought I said to gag him.” I sighed and he struggled, but Chloe ripped off the duffel bag strap with the same effort she’d peel off a sticky note and stuffed a good portion of it in his mouth before she tied it behind his head.

“There.” She said and patted his cheek. The dragons each had a shoulder and forced him to keel between the two seats of the minivan. “Sit, and wait for my king to deal with you later. Where’s Morgana?”

“No idea. She went after Carl. But we need to get out of the immediate area and then wait for her to call.” I drove past a few cop cars heading towards the building, sirens blaring into the otherwise quiet night.

An explosion would do that.

The painter was muffling something through the duffel strap. I knew it would all be useless threats at the moment. I was more interested in when he realized his situation and gave me the information I expected.

“So here’s the situation-” I found a dark spot a few minutes away and parked before I turned around to face him. “It was that lady that blew up your place. We were just trying to get pictures of you cheating because your wife thought that’s why there was a different smell at that apartment. Mostly, I do unofficial private investigator work. I don’t have a license, so you can think of me as a mercenary.” I grinned at him.

‘Mercenary’ always made people panic, but Morgana would save a cat from a tree for a bar of gold.

He looked more confused, and I was okay with that.

Unbuckling, I shifted towards the back of the van, ready to get some answers.

His eyes gave off a little gray smoke, so I punched him in the face hard enough to daze him before he could do anything stupid. If I was honest, he just had a punchable face too.

“Let’s be clear. I can kill you and leave no evidence at the drop of a hat. So stop with the smoky eyed deal. If I’m honest, seeing it really pisses me off.” I pursed my lips.

He made a meek squeak and nodded.

“Good. Now, if we take your gag out, promise not to do anything stupid?” I asked him.

He paused, almost as if he was considering saying that he’d be stupid before he nodded.

Chloe jerked the gag out and glared at him warningly.

“Okay, I hate this part. Just answer questions and I won’t have to do the part that neither of us will like.” I tried to smile, but I didn’t think it came off very friendly by how he recoiled. Dragon fangs could do that. But my dragonettes were just smiling, totally fangirling at that moment.

“Sure.” The painter couldn’t quite meet my eyes. “I was just using my apartment to hold onto some things. Carl and the guys used it to hide out. The elf lady came to talk to Carl, but I hadn’t spent much time with her before that. I swear, I don’t know much. I just owned the hideout.”

“Ah yes. Carl and the disgraced FBI agents. Who’s the elf lady? What does she look like?” That was the question I was most curious to have answered.

“Uh, she’s cute. Pointy ears. Her hair is a different color every time I see her?” He ducked his head, clearly expecting to be hit.

I rolled my eyes. “Not going to hit you if you answer the questions.” He said elf, but I had a hunch. “Did her ears point up or back?”

“Huh?” He looked up with a frown.

I mimed the difference between elf ears and faerie ears as I asked again. “Up or back?”

“Oh, uh, back.” He nodded quickly.

“Not an elf. She’s a fae, a trickster.” I groaned because that meant all the other details he could give me about her were likely a glamor.

“A trickster?” He was still struggling to catch up.

“Yep. You, Carl, Norton, hell maybe even Iapetus are probably dancing to her tune. Fae are like that.” I paused and looked at my honor guards. “Most are, especially when they are involved in something like this.” I corrected myself so I wasn’t calling the fae girls in my life tricksters.

I looked at them, wondering if they had any thoughts or questions.

“She used fire.” Chloe pointed out.

“Likely to be a Summer Fae, especially with how strong she was this time of year.” I agreed, though there was a slight lingering thought that it could be a wild fae. The only thing I could rule out was a winter fae. They wouldn’t have that kind of firepower at the ready in the current season even if they were trying to fake summer fae magic.

I focused back on the painter. “Any idea what they were doing with the body?”

He swallowed. “You know about the body?”

“Yeah. If it’s what I suspect, I killed him.” I grinned down at the man as he shivered between my honor guards.

Comments

GhostPhil

And in the end it is Ikta all over again 🤣

Hayden Leech

Everyone thinks it’s spring. Me too originally until I saw the comments and saw how obvious it was to everyone. Ergo it’s not spring. That would be lazy writing.

Ryan Romano

we haven't seen the magi since book 2, maybe they're trying to influence opinion so when everything is revealed they're the lesser danger since they're still human