Fire Song

CHAPTER ONE

Hey there, said a soft voice.

I looked up. I was standing on my own, staring out at the ocean, huddled under a blanket. There was a throng of people still on the boardwalk. We’d all been here for the Sea City March Wine Festival. The air was nippy, though earlier today, it had been bright and sunny, a herald of spring.

I wasn’t sure how this blanket had gotten around my shoulders. Someone must have put it on me.

I was only concentrating on what I’d seen, every single detail of the body that had washed up on the beach.

I’d walked down to the surf, wanting a bit of fresh air, and there she had been.

She was pale and bloated, gleaming in the moonlight, her hair tangled around her throat. The wounds in her chest gaped open, dark and shiny, like the sea itself.

But the worst thing had been her eyes. Rheumy, the color of a robin’s egg… no pupil left at all.

You doing okay? said the soft voice.

I turned to look in the direction of the voice. Fine, I snapped, even though I was shaking under the blanket.

The soft voice belonged to a man in a suit. His tie was loosened. His pants were crusted in sand.

He had movie star good looks. A dimpled chin. A straight nose. His shoulders were broad and his hands looked large and powerful.

But he was gaunt. His cheekbones too prominent, his clothes hanging too loose. And his eyes…

His eyes were hollow.

There was something strange about the look of him, so attractive and yet so haunted.

I pulled my blanket tighter around myself, my brain working. He must be… You the police detective? The one they said was going to want to talk to me?

That’d be me. Detective Lachlan Flint. He had a hint of a southern drawl, so different from the mid-Atlantic accent I usually heard around these parts. And a sharp departure from my own clipped northern speech. I understand you saw the girl.

I nodded. She had cuts… I gestured to my own chest. Long, deep gashes, like she’d been ripped apart.

I saw the body, ma’am, he said reassuringly. You don’t have to go through that for me.

Oh. I nodded. Of course. I had been holding the image in my brain for nothing. Why had I thought he would need me to describe it? Why hadn’t I just let it go?

Because I couldn’t.

…will go through any evidence they can find on her at the lab, he was saying.

I had missed the beginning of that sentence, but I just nodded.

Won’t be much, I’m afraid, he said. Water tends to get rid of most anything useful.

I gazed at him, thinking again of how hollow his eyes seemed. Maybe he was simply tired. Or maybe he had seen too many bodies, too many robin’s egg eyes, and it had left a permanent mark on him.

Sorry about that, he said. "I don’t need to go through that for you. I understand you can identify the victim?"

Oh, I whispered. I… I shook my head. No, I don’t know who she is. I winced. What was wrong with me? Had I said her name aloud? I was going to blow everything. I couldn’t have people knowing who and what I was.

You called her… He got his phone out of his suit jacket pocket and scrolled through something on the screen. Elena. Several people heard you.

No, I didn’t, I said. I’ve never seen her before.

He nodded slowly. I see. So, can you explain to me how it is that other people heard you say that name?

Maybe someone else said it, and they thought it was me.

You ran up the beach and you yelled… He consulted his screen. ‘It’s Elena. It’s her. She’s dead.’ He raised his eyebrows.

Damn, had I really said that? Well, it was upsetting seeing a girl dead like that, especially one who was so young. I turned away from Lachlan Flint to look out at the ocean—dark water against a dark sky.

Did you have something to do with this girl ending up in the water? he said gently. Maybe you didn’t expect her to wash up so close to home.

What? I turned to him. No!

All right, then. He waited.

I didn’t say anything.

You and I both know that you know that girl. Now, you tell me who she is and how it is you know her, and you might be headed home to your bed tonight. If not, I think you’ll be coming to the station with me, and I’ll have to keep pestering you until I get the truth out of you.

I sighed. I’d gotten myself into a heck of a mess, hadn’t I? She’s Elena Watson, I said. She’s a dragon.

The surprise flitted across his face before he could school his expression. A dragon? Well, there was some speculation that this was a magical creatures case, and that’s why they called me. I’m the police detective that deals with that. But dragons, well, you don’t see a lot of that.

Not down in the south part of the city, I said.

No, he said. Most of the dragons lived up north, right on the border of Delaware.

I think she must have been out in town. The younger dragon set likes to do that. They like to mingle with the humans, pretend… I licked my lips. Maybe a slayer saw her, realized what she was.

This isn’t a slayer killing, said Flint. Slayers kill dragons in dragon form. They kill for things they can sell. We don’t find dragon bodies, because there’s never anything left. Slayers cut them up and sell every last bit.

I felt bile rising in my throat. I knew this, of course, but hearing it put so graphically made me feel nauseous.

How do you know what the younger dragon set likes to do? said Flint. How do you know this girl was a dragon?

Now, that was something I couldn’t tell him. But I needed to say something, or he would continue to be suspicious. I cast about for a lie. I used to work there, for a dragon family at one of their beach houses in the north of Sea City. I didn’t really know Elena, but I saw her a few times. As far as it went, not knowing her was the truth. I had never been close to Elena, but I knew every dragon in the community. There were less than fifty family lines. It was a small world.

Worked?

Cleaning, I said.

He nodded. Ah. He put his hands in his pockets and turned to look out over the beach. The people who I talked to, they identified you as the owner of the Purple Dolphin Hotel and Suites. He consulted his phone again. Miss Penelope Caspian?

People call me Penny, I said.

So, you own a hotel now?

A small one, I said. We only had ten rooms and four suites.

Tell, me, how does a person go from cleaning houses to owning a hotel?

Damn it. I looked down at my feet.

Maybe you know a lot about mingling with humans, Ms. Caspian, he said in a low voice, and there was something intimate about it.

I swallowed hard. He was good, wasn’t he? That low, southern voice of his made me want to tell him everything. He made me feel as if confessing to him would ease all my burdens. I lifted my chin, defiant. A person works hard.

He chuckled. All right, then.

Listen, detective, this has been a very traumatizing experience for me, and if you don’t have any other questions for me…

I won’t say anything, he said, his voice still low and intimate. I’ll keep it to myself what you are. But I wonder… He sized me up. We aren’t equipped to deal with the influx of creatures into Sea City. The police department, myself included, is fairly clueless about all of that.

It was true that Sea City had only become the number one vacation spot for magical creatures over the past ten years or so. It had started with dragons buying up real estate in the north, right on the border of Delaware, and then everyone had started following suit. Vampires, gargoyles, and mages. Even drakes, slinking along in the shadows. There were more concentrated magical creatures here than probably anywhere else on the east coast.

You, as a person who’s cleaned houses for dragons, might have some useful knowledge. He winked at me, to let me know he didn’t really believe I’d ever cleaned a house in my life. He was right about that, unfortunately. I wonder if I had a question about something in a case, if I might get in touch with you.

I drew myself up. This a deal, detective? Tit for tat? You keep your mouth shut if I help you out?

Just a simple request, Ms. Caspian.

Well, then, Detective Flint, I’m afraid I’m a very busy woman. I doubt I’d have time.

He pursed his lips.

Is there anything else you need from me? I asked again.

Not for tonight, he said. Somehow, it sounded like a threat.

I pulled the blanket tight around my shoulders and stalked off through the sand.

* * *

I couldn’t sleep that night. I tried, rolling over and over in my bed, in my apartment, which sat just over the lobby of the Purple Dolphin Hotel. I lived where I worked, and everything that I had was now sunk into this hotel.

Maybe it had been stupid coming here.

I had thought Sea City would be the perfect hiding spot. I had thought that losing myself amongst the magical misfits in the south part of the city would be easy. I had thought that I’d blend in, and that no one would ever figure out who or what I was.

You had to buy a hotel, didn’t you? I whispered at the ceiling.

I hadn’t wanted to work for anyone else. I was proud that way. Call it my heritage, I suppose.

I had been raised in a wealthy family, and everyone I knew was wealthy, and no one that I knew was anyone’s employee. Not in the world that I came from. So, I guessed that I had purchased the hotel because I didn’t know how else to make my way in the world.

Now I had it, and I loved it here.

Or I had, until recently, when everything had been going to hell. It wasn’t just the body on the beach.

I kept hearing rumors that Alastair was here.

I had come here specifically because he hated it here. He hated the ocean. Why had he changed his mind? And why was he here so early in the season? It wasn’t even officially spring.

But the body was the reason that I couldn’t sleep.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw that girl’s dead, washed-out eyes.

She had been so young.

She wasn’t even mated yet. And I knew that time in a dragon’s life was heady and free. The young and unmated refused to take anything seriously. They drank and gambled and snorted cocaine and slept around and threw their family money where they could. Life for a girl like Elena Watson was a big party, and she had been intent on living it to the fullest.

I didn’t know who had killed her.

Maybe it had nothing to do with her being a dragon.

But death stalked dragons. Well. Slayers stalked dragons. Drakes stalked dragons. Even vampires, though they could get their magic from the blood of drakes, came for us.

Perhaps this had been the work of a vampire. Unlike the other creatures, vampires could use dragon’s blood even if it came from a dragon in human form. For anyone else to extract a dragon’s magic, they needed a dragon in dragon form.

And that was something that Elena Watson would never feel again. She would never shift into her dragon form. She would never spread her wings, soar on a current, breathe fire—

Hell, she’d never breathed fire at all. A dragon couldn’t achieve that feat until he or she had mated.

Finally, I stopped fighting it. It was after midnight when I crawled out of bed and made my way down to the shore. I walked over the sand barefoot. I threw my nightshirt over my head, the cold air against my naked skin.

I stepped into the surf.

The water was freezing, but I pushed past the waves, going out far enough that the water would submerge my body.

I dove under the waves, and the icy water enveloped me.

Here, in the water, I opened myself to the change. It had to be done here, under water, because the shift from one form to another was far too much. Being weightless helped. If I tried it out of water, my dragon form would destroy my human form coming out, and I would never be able to shift back. The human part of me would die.

I couldn’t be sure, but I often thought that the dragons of legend, the ones who razed cities to the ground, breathing fire and killing everything in their path, were dragons who had lost their human form in such a way. They had been trapped as dragons, frustrated and angry. No wonder they had been so vicious.

Under the water, my wings unfurled.

I surfaced, the sea dripping off of my scales. I rose from the water, flapping my wings, gaining altitude.

I aimed for the moon, the air rushing around me, the freedom—the euphoria—of flight making everything feel okay again.

Nothing could touch me here. Not Alastair, not a dead girl whose life had never been lived, not all the death I’d experienced in my life.

I liked it here, soaring and swooping, going higher and higher.

I climbed above the clouds. I wanted to fly away from all my troubles.

But wasn’t that what I’d tried to do when I’d come here? Hadn’t I thought that being far away from the life I used to live would mean I’d be free? And here I was. No matter how far I flew, how far I ran, trouble found me anyway.

Maybe it was a curse.

But I was alive. I wasn’t gone, like Elena Watson, cut up and washed up, dead and destroyed.

I thought of Elena’s family, getting the news. Like most dragon couples, her parents had only managed to produce one offspring. It wasn’t for lack of trying, of course, but pregnancy was difficult for dragons to achieve. Elena was the only hope of carrying on their line. She was their only precious little girl. They had lavished all their love on her. She had been the center of their universe. Now, she was gone.

The agony they must be feeling.

Yes, at least I was alive.

Even if I felt as if I had lost the center of my own universe a long time ago.

Sometimes, I wasn’t even sure how it was that I got up and kept moving.

Maybe it was only for this. The wind in my wings, the moonlight reflecting on the ocean beneath me. Night flight. It was joy, even when I couldn’t find anything else to be glad about.

CHAPTER TWO

I walked back up the beach after the flight, pulling my nightshirt on over my wet, naked body. I was now back in human form.

The dawn was starting to streak through the sky. Soon, the sun would rise over the water, staining everything pink and orange. But for now it was only a bone-colored sky on a gray horizon.

There was someone in the lobby of my hotel.

I took off at a run, which wasn’t an easy thing to do in the sand. It slowed me down, and I missed the ease of flight, nothing in my way but the breeze.

I hurried up the set of wooden steps that led to the patio of the hotel.

I ran past tables topped with closed umbrellas, past the empty pool, which wouldn’t be filled until at least May.

I threw open the door to the lobby.

The vampires in there all turned to look at me.

They were in the middle of trashing the place, yanking things off shelves, emptying drawers, overturning a big rack of brochures by the door.

Get out, I growled. I told you never to come back here.

You pay and you never see us again, said one of the vampires. They were all wearing leather jackets with skulls on the back, emblazoned with the name of their gang, The Lost Breed.

The vampire motorcycle gang ran this part of the beach. They demanded that every business owner pay them off each month. They called themselves a security team. Said they’d protect us from robbers and vandals. But the only robbers and vandals were the gang themselves.

The deal really worked out to this: pay us, and we’ll stop trashing your place of business twice a month.

I wasn’t the kind of person who took well to being pushed around.

Not anymore.

The vampires were bullies.

Bite me, I said, grinning widely at them.

One of them had a baseball bat slung over his shoulder. He swung it down to his feet and leaned on it. Listen, lady, we’re here under orders. You know how this works. Just pay us.

Never, I said.

He picked up the bat. He swung into the window in the front door.

Glass shattered with a crash.

Your funeral, he said, hauling back to swing again.

I lifted my hands. Before, I hadn’t resorted to this, because I hadn’t wanted anyone to know what I was. But now it hardly seemed to matter. And fresh from a flight over the ocean, I was brimming with magic. I felt it crackling from my core, racing down my arms, over my fingertips.

I pointed, and the vamp and the baseball bat both lifted off the ground.

I separated the bat from the vampire, sent it hurtling to the ground, where it landed with a loud metal clank.

The vampire let out a hoarse cry. He was scared, even though vampires could do this kind of magic too—well, they could if they’d had a nice meal of dragon blood.

But most vampires seemed to just drink blood to survive, and that meant from animals. They got pints of it at their local butcher shop, and all that blood did for them was keep them alive, help them heal quickly, keep them strong.

These vampires weren’t going to be a problem.

Hank? said one of the other vamps. All of them had stopped whatever destruction they were in the middle of to stare at their floating friend.

I slammed Hank into the wall, pinned him there like a bug on a card.

Hank, what are you doing up there? said one of the other vamps.

I’m not doing it, said Hank, gaping at me. She is.

I pointed at another vampire, one who hadn’t spoken. He lifted from the ground as well.

He shrieked. Hey, lady, let me down.

What is she? Some kind of mage? said another one.

She’s not doing a spell, said Hank. Her lips ain’t moving.

Talisman, said another. I’ll find it. I’ll get it off her.

I nodded at him. He fell flat on the ground. He struggled, but I used my magic to keep him down.

I can’t move! he said, his voice full of fear.

Abruptly, I dropped Hank.

He crashed down to the ground and landed with a crunch.

Ooh. I thought his leg was broken.

He howled.

Get him out of here, I said. Get him out of here and don’t come back or I will do much worse than this to all of you.

I set down the other vampire. I let the third guy get up.

They gathered up Hank and scampered out of the lobby right quick.

I watched them go.

Then I stared at the broken glass that littered the floor and felt a sob welling up in my throat. The lobby was trashed. I had customers checking in today. How was I supposed to do that when this place had been destroyed?

Thought you were keeping a low profile, Penny, said the voice of my best friend Felicity Richardson.

I turned to see her in the doorway to the lobby. Hey. I felt exhausted.

I saw you flying around out there. Other people probably saw too.

There are dragons flying around all the time, I said. It’s not a big deal.

Not down here in the south part of the city, she said. She was right. Dragons tended to stay in the north. Safer there, amongst their own.

I walked over to her, gingerly stepping around the broken glass. My feet were bare. I had a bad night. I saw a dead body.

I heard about that on the news, she said. When I was coming home, it was on the radio in my car. Some girl’s body washed up? She was a dragon?

I nodded.

They said she was a minor, so they didn’t release the name.

Elena Watson, I said.

Oh, she’s so young, said Felicity.

I know.

My best friend Felicity was a drake, but she wasn’t like all the other drakes. She had fallen in with a bad crowd in college and gotten dosed with what she thought was an innocent brownie. Turns out the thing was laced with dragon flesh. When the high came on, she was terrified. She hadn’t been expecting it. She got in her car and tried to drive. Wrapped her car around a tree. When she woke up, she looked the way she does now.