Breathing Fire (Heretic Daughters 1)

“You know, you can hardly complain,” he panted at me. He was across the room, since I had thrown him there. “If we were to compare notes on who has taken more shit from the other’s love life, I’m well ahead of you, dear.” He gave me a half smile to soften the blow, but it still landed solidly.

“Touché,” I said softly, stung. It was very true. When I had left Dom seven years ago, Christian had been tortured for information. He hadn’t revealed one thing to them, and he’d known plenty. “I did tell you to lay low for awhile.” I tried to sound lighthearted, but didn’t manage. I knew Christian was long over it, but I wasn’t.

He shrugged. “I’m not scared of the druids. Actually, the bastards had the nerve to contact me recently.”

His revelation surprised me enough to get me pinned face first to the ground while my mind worked the ramifications out. “When was that?” I panted.

“A few weeks ago. I guess they suspect that the necros have recruited a few new created Others to their cause. Same old shit that’s been going on forever.” I struggled hard, but couldn’t budge him. He continued talking, as though he didn’t even notice my struggles. “That age-old debate between the Born and the Created. Sounds as if hostilities have escalated, though. Druids are putting together a team to move in on one of the necro settlements, fry up some of their half-dead asses. They’re gonna make an example. They wanted to know if I wanted in on the action. Cheeky blokes. They thought I’d be tempted by the carnage of an all out brawl.”

“Does kind of sound like a good time.” Panting, I finally threw him off.

“Yeah, I thought so. I agreed to help them,” he said, shocking me and effectively ending our session.

“Ok, lift more weights after I leave, candy ass. Training’s over for today.”

I made our usual after workout shakes. He didn’t notice when I put a drop of my blood into his glass. How crazy do you have to be to feed your blood to the only thing on earth that can kill you, in order to prolong it’s life, and make it stronger? Yeah, about that crazy.

I brought two glasses to the table, handing him one. I went to grab some napkins, and as I turned back, I would have sworn he was checking out my ass. “Were you just checking out my ass?” I was a little baffled that I even had to ask.

“Yes.” He took a drink of my less than tasty concoction.

I wrinkled my nose at him. “Why?”

His eyes were pointing at my chest now. “It still just baffles me, even after all these years. Looks-wise, you’re my ideal.”

“Me and every other woman in the state,” I agreed dryly.

He shrugged. “But there is no attraction. Zero. I guess I’ll just never understand it. There are women I know, that I can’t stand to talk to, that aren’t half as good-looking as you, and I’d still screw ‘em. What the bloody hell? You know, it would be convenient, if we could like each other like that. They say good friends make the best lovers.”

I burst out laughing, and couldn’t stop for a solid five minutes. He looked insulted, but eventually started grinning. “Just think of us as blood relations,” I explained to him. There was, of course, a very logical answer to the question he was asking, but I’d never be the one to tell him what it was. Not willingly. “Or a cat and a dog. It just ain’t right, so leave it at that.”

His sardonic look told me from experience that he was agreeing with me. “Fine. So tell me who worked you over?”

I groaned. “It’s a mess.”

“Tell me.”

“Mav and Michael did it. Some witch-hag turned us in for a reward to the druids. She told them about our shop. Those two showed up, as shocked to see me as I was to see them. I let them work me over.”

He looked about as surprised as I’d ever seen him. “The bastards actually fell for that?” he sputtered, half choking back a laugh. It never took Christian long to figure out a punch line. Well…almost never. “My god, Dom is gonna kill them if he finds out. And they’ll deserve it, for being such idiots.”

I gave him a half-smile. “They were never the brains of the operation. But yeah, things have gotten messy, so I bought us a little time. Time will tell if it was worth the blow to my pride. Something is going on with Lynn, too. Not sure what, though. She had a shiner this morning.”

“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.”