I rolled my eyes at the talk of chakras, made a note to later look up glottis, and wondered what it said about me that I would rather be fighting with the panther brothers than doing this. “Right. Ocean breathing. I’ll work on it.”
“Excellent. I want to hear you.” The instructor wandered off to harass someone else.
A clank, followed by glass breaking, came from a window at the front of the room. I jumped to my feet, reacting before the projectile—a grenade, damn it—hit the bamboo floor. Startled shouts came from the other people in the class. I sprinted up, grabbed the grenade, and threw it back out through the hole it had made in the window.
An explosion roared out in the street, fiery orange light flashing, and the windows shook under the force. The already-broken window shattered inward, glass tinkling across the hard floor. Women screamed and ran for the changing rooms. I ran and jumped out the window, grimacing as glass cut my bare feet.
Not only did I not have shoes, but my weapons were all in the Jeep. Fortunately, I wore my charm necklace and could call Sindari if needed.
The explosion faded as I landed on the sidewalk, crouching behind a mailbox for cover and looking for who had thrown the grenade. Tires squealed at a nearby intersection, and I glimpsed a truck peeling out of sight around the corner. That truck looked a lot like the white one that had been in the Pardus brothers’ driveway.
I was tempted to run after it—horns honked, promising plenty of traffic that would slow down their getaway—but I saw someone walking toward me wearing slippers and a black robe that wouldn’t fit in anywhere except maybe a fantasy gaming convention.
The power of Zav’s aura buffeted me like a strong wind, and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t sensed him sooner. Maybe he’d been flying nearby, spotted the explosion and landed immediately, turning into his human form so he wouldn’t attract attention.
“What are you doing here?” I blurted as soon as he was close enough to speak with over the honks of horns and shouts of people on the opposite side of the street. Already, a siren wailed, the police and maybe the fire department heading this way. Nothing was burning—thankfully, the grenade had exploded in the air over the street. “I know you didn’t come to get your chakras aligned.”
“That is not the proper way to greet a dragon.” Zav looked me up and down, his gaze lingering on my bloody feet. “Nor is this appropriate attire for battling criminals.”
“I’m not battling criminals. I’m exercising and contorting my throat to do ocean breathing.”
His forehead creased. “You must always be prepared to battle criminals. They are attracted to you. That is why I keep telling you that I will use you as bait.”
“No kidding.” A police car turned onto the street, and some of the yoga students were peering out the broken window and the front door. “Look, I’ve got a message for you. Let’s go over there.” I pointed to an alley.
I hurried to it. Zav considered his surroundings before clasping his hands behind his back and strolling after me.
“You leave blood on the ground as you walk.” He pointed to a spot. “This will make it easy for enemies to track you. Do you wish me to heal your injuries?”
“No, I don’t want anything from you.” Owing Zav a favor would be even worse than owing Zoltan a favor. I waved for him to keep following me, so I could go to the parking lot in the back where I’d left the Jeep. “But there’s a dragon who does. You know a Dob-something-or-other? Big silver dragon, likes to kidnap children?”
Zav’s face grew frosty. “I know Dobsaurin and am aware that he is in this world.”
“Did you know that he’s been trying to get your attention?”
“I do not know his reason for coming, but I have sensed him here. I have been far to the east and south, capturing rogue djinn in a hot desert region.”
“What brings you back? You missed me?”
He regarded me blandly again. “You do make it easier to locate criminals. They are drawn to you like a vylorni to a flame.”
“I’ve noticed.” I waved in the direction of the soot-stained sidewalk and broken window. My first yoga class, and I’d endangered all the students there. How had those idiot brothers guessed I would be there? They couldn’t have tracked me by scent in a city so large, could they have? “But you attract irate dragons who don’t like your current criminal-capturing gig.”
“Dobsaurin’s family does not like anything that my family does. We are rivals.”
“Yeah, I guessed.” I walked across the parking lot to my Jeep. Nobody else from the class had come out the back yet. Maybe they were waiting for the police to question them. I would need to go get my shoes and bag eventually, but I hadn’t locked my door, so at least I could grab a towel out of the back and wipe my feet.
A warm heat washed across my soles, followed by the itching of new skin forming, and I glared suspiciously at Zav. He stood a few feet away, his aura tingling all over me and probably making it even easier for magical beings to find me. His hands were still clasped behind his back.
“You’re healing me? Listen, I appreciate that you’d rather do that than incinerate me, but I really don’t want to owe you any favors.”
He cocked his head. “Why not?”
“Because you’ll try to redeem them. And tell me I need to travel with you and be your bait.”
“I do believe your reputation might have stretched even to the distant deserts. You may have attracted the djinn, thus making it easier for me to locate and capture them. Lesser magical beings tend to hide when dragons come near.”
“Shocking.”
“Your tone is not properly respectful. Do not forget that you are addressing a superior being.”
I only partially managed to muffle my scoff as I rubbed the towel across my feet. The blood had dried, and the wounds had completely disappeared. It wasn’t just that they’d turned to scars; it was as if the injuries had never occurred.
“Thank you,” I made myself say, however grudgingly. Now that I’d met a dragon that liked to kidnap children for fun, it made me realize I should be a little nicer to the one who was a law enforcer. Even if laws put forth by the Dragon Justice Court had little in common with Earth laws, Zav seemed vaguely reasonable to deal with. “Why are you here? I don’t suppose the Pardus panther-shifter brothers have committed crimes and you’ve come to capture them for rehabilitation.”
Dare I hope? If he was after them, it would make sense that he’d shown up.
“No. I do not know who they are. I brought you the gift you requested, even though your tone reminds me that you are not deserving of gifts from a dragon.”
“Uh, what?” I was positive I hadn’t requested anything from him except that vial of blood, and he’d already given me that.
“A poster of myself that you can throw hatchets at.”
“You’re joking, right?”
“I am not.” Zav drew, seemingly out of an invisible poster carrier attached to his back, a rolled-up tube.
Had he actually found a print shop and had one made? I couldn’t believe it. I squinted at him as I accepted it, still expecting a joke.
“I suppose dragons aren’t known for their senses of humor,” I said when I didn’t find any sign of amusement on his face. It was a handsome face, with a strong, angular jaw and high cheekbones, everything enhanced by a perfectly trimmed beard and mustache, but it was a haughty one. It had to be hard to laugh when one’s haughtiness mask was affixed so tightly.
“Who told you this lie? Dragons have riotous senses of humor, but we only tell jokes among our own kind. Inferior species would not have the necessary mental acuity to grasp them.”
So much haughtiness.
“Oh, I bet.”
As I opened the tube and tipped the poster out, I noticed a twelve- or thirteen-year-old boy with a skateboard under his arm eyeing us from across the parking lot. He was watching but pretending not to be watching. Maybe he liked Zav’s robe and wanted to know what Etsy shop he could order it from.
“I also came because Dobsaurin told me he left a message with you.” Zav’s violet eyes narrowed. “He was exceedingly coy when he spoke to me, and it was from a great distance. I know he is here in this geographical region, but I cannot pin him down.” He gazed at the walls of the buildings around us, as if he could see through them to the snow-capped Cascades to the east and the Olympics to the west. “I believe some magical artifact is assisting him in evading my senses. He taunted me with his words, as if he had some knowledge that I did not.”
“Uh, the only knowledge I have is that he wants to kill you for sanctimonious meddling, and he’s a dick.”
“I already know this.” Zav paused. “What is a… dick?”
“The thing hanging between your legs.” I unrolled the poster but almost lost my grip when Zav bent to look down. Did he think I meant his robe? “The sex organ that’s there if you gave yourself all the human parts when you shape-shifted. I guess I don’t know if you did. And,” I hurried to add, “I don’t want to know.”
Zav straightened. “I would not shape-shift into an ill-considered amorphous blob. When I am in human form, I am anatomically correct.”
“I’m so glad for you.”
I held out both sides of the poster. It wasn’t the big black dragon I’d expected. It was a blown-up photograph of Zav, with his familiar haughty and handsome face and wearing the same black robe with silver trim. He was posing with one leg propped on a chair and his chin on his fist, his elbow on his knee. I assumed it had been the photographer’s idea. It wasn’t a bad one. The photo was attractive. If he wanted to retire from enforcing dragon laws, he could easily get modeling gigs here. Or, if he was as anatomically correct as promised, a career working in the sex industry.
“I have to admit, I was imagining throwing hatchets at the dragon form of you.”