She was so tall, just a hair shorter than my own six feet, that I almost forgot she was still a kid. A teenager, yes, but a kid. Her green eyes were wide and scared. Understandably so. I was positive my own eyes had looked the same way the day I’d met Zav and he’d been trying to incinerate me.
As Amber stepped forward, Sindari came into her view. He didn’t move, but she braced herself with a hand to the wall and spat out a startled, “Shit!”
I resisted the urge to make some stupid parental comment like, Does your dad let you swear?
Besides, sarcasm was more my way of dealing with awkward situations.
“I think she finds you more impressive than the dragon,” I told Sindari.
Naturally. I am a sleek and magnificent predator who must rely on fang and sinew to bring down prey, rather than ridiculously overpowered magic.
“I just didn’t realize tigers were that big,” Amber mumbled, then seemed to find her courage. She lifted her chin and stood straight as she looked me up and down, her gaze lingering on Fezzik in my thigh holster and Chopper poking up over my shoulder. “Huh. It’s really true, isn’t it?”
“That I’m a maniac who hunts magical bad guys and totes big weapons around?”
“Dad said you’re an assassin for the army.”
“An assassin of magical bad guys for the army. I don’t kill humans.” I felt it important that she know that.
“I thought you were a druggie or a deadbeat and Dad was trying to be polite. That’s what he does. He should run for office or something. He never says anything bad about anyone, even that— never mind.”
Her broken sentence roused my curiosity, as I immediately wondered if she’d started to say something about the girlfriend, but I highly doubted Amber wanted to share confidences with me. With a tiger watching on. In the nasty bathroom at the campground with damp toilet paper shreds all over the floor.
“No. I work hard and don’t consume anything more mind-altering than hard cider. I’m sure other nouns apply, but druggie and deadbeat aren’t among them.” I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d had a vacation. Willard seemed to think any time I traveled out of town counted, but camping out to hunt sasquatch while being stalked by dragons was not relaxing or rejuvenating.
“Can I go?” Amber eyed the door behind me, and I had a feeling she was only asking permission because I was armed and standing in the way. “Is that thing—was it really a dragon?—going to attack me again? What’s it doing here?”
“You can go. The dragon is…” I wanted to lie. I wanted to pretend it was here for something unrelated to me and that I’d just happened to show up to heroically save the day. Or at least stab it in the elbow. “He’s after me.”
“Then why did he chase me? We don’t look anything alike.”
Actually, we looked a lot alike, but judging from the dismissive look she gave my duster, combat boots, and weapons, it was more our fashion styles that she was dismissing as similar. She was in a pale blue summer blouse with artistically rolled up sleeves and cut-off denim shorts with pink and yellow flower-shaped patches on the butt pockets.
“Apparently, we smell alike.”
“What? Gross.” Amber wrinkled her nose. “You stink.”
I started to object, but then I remembered the sasquatch fur in a baggie—in ten baggies—in my pocket. It was fragrant enough that I could smell it through all the wrapping.
She’s not wrong, Sindari observed. Perhaps you should store that somewhere for the time being.
“Our blood smells alike,” I clarified. “To a dragon. They have noses like Rocket.” Probably better than Rocket.
“That’s so weird. Can I go?” Amber shifted, as if to go around me, but eyed Sindari warily.
He hadn’t made a threatening move. He was simply large, and she would have to squeeze between us to get out.
A thousand things I longed to say threatened to burble out, and an ill-advised part of me wanted to block the door, to force her to stay and listen to me apologize for being an asshole of a mother who’d brought her into the world and then ditched her. I should have known way back then that I couldn’t change my career, and that things wouldn’t work out with Thad, but I’d been in denial.
If I had realized those things, she wouldn’t exist. Could I truly apologize for giving birth to her? I barely knew her, but it was surely wrong to wish she weren’t here in the world. I just wished she were completely safe and that she’d had a mother. Maybe that Shauna was better than I believed and would fill the role, if Amber still wanted someone in that role. Did she? Maybe it was too late.
Looking at her now, at the stubborn and belligerent set to her mouth, I couldn’t manage to voice any of the thoughts spinning in my mind. I stepped aside so she could leave.
Without a goodbye, or a thanks for helping, she stalked for the door.
“Wait.” I jerked my hand up, realizing nothing had changed. Shaygor might go after her again as she headed back to the rental, and if she was walking, it might be dark before she got back. Predators loved to hunt at night…
“What?” She twisted to avoid my hand, even though I’d stopped myself from grabbing her arm.
“I want you to take my charm.”
Her forehead wrinkled as I reached for the trinket-filled thong around my neck.
“A specific one.” I pulled it off so I could untie the knot and remove the camouflage charm.
Val, Sindari warned, you need that. Shaygor will be on you faster than a hawk on a titmouse if you aren’t hidden.
We’ll see. It’s been off for the last ten minutes, and he’s not back.
He will be.
Amber watched me warily, her hand on the door, appearing torn between wanting to get out of there and curiosity. Or maybe wondering if I was going to give her something useful.
“What do they do?” she asked.
“Each one is different. This one kept me from bursting into flames when the dragon spewed fire at me. This cat-shaped one summons Sindari.” I nodded to him—he was in the middle of trying to shake a nasty piece of damp toilet paper off his tail. “And this one camouflages the person wearing it. There’s no activation command, but you have to touch it and envision it making you disappear.” I handed it to her. “This is a loaner charm, so don’t lose it, please.”
“I’m not an idiot.”
“It’s saved my life a lot of times. It won’t work if the dragon is right on top of you, but if you see him coming or sense him coming—” I didn’t know if she could do that or how large her range would be if she could, “—activate it. You have to keep it on you for it to work.”
“‘Kay.” Amber pushed open the door, looking warily outside, but paused before leaving. “What do you mean I’m part elven?”
“Mom—your grandmother—never told you about that?”
Amber hesitated. “Maybe once when I was little, but Dad pulled her aside, and she didn’t bring it up again. I don’t remember what she said very well.”
“Well, ask her about it now. She knows a lot more about it than I do. She’s the one who got horizontal with an elf.”
A horrified expression twisted Amber’s face. “Horizon… Shit, lady, she’s old. That’s gross.”
Lady? Did she not even know my name? “It’s Val, not lady, and I’m sure she was a hot nubile vixen at the time.”
The horrified expression only intensified. Amber fled, the door banging shut behind her.
I scratched my cheek. “That didn’t go as badly as I feared.”
She’s abrasive, finds me murderous, and I predict she’ll lose your most valuable charm before she gets back to her lodgings.
“I was abrasive at that age too.”
You’re still abrasive. There’s just more wit underlying it.
Was that a compliment?
I will compliment you if you assist me. This wet paper is like glue. He’d succeeded in removing the piece from his tail, but now it was stuck to his paw. The scathing look he gave me conveyed his thorough distaste for all things human. Why can your people not urinate in the grass like every other normal species?
It’s a mystery. I plucked the toilet paper off his paw and debated if there was a point to setting up my tent or if a dragon would inevitably show up and light it on fire.
12
I yawned and rubbed my eyes, acknowledging that this had been an incredibly long day. There was about an hour of daylight left as I finished setting up my tent. Up the hill, the fire in the park was out, but the fire engine remained parked along the curb, as if the team expected more trouble before the day ended.
Given the way things were going for the town, I wouldn’t be surprised if that turned out to be true. Shaygor hadn’t yet returned, but as I unzipped the door of the tent, intending to put my sleeping bag in there, I sensed a familiar powerful aura.
Your cloaking charm is not activated, Zav spoke into my mind before I could see him in the sky, flying in over the lake.
I decided to court danger tonight. It’s stimulating. I decided not to mention that I’d given my charm to Amber.
Zav didn’t respond with words, but stern disapproval oozed into my mind.
By the time I’d laid out my sleeping bag—the tag said fire-retardant, but I was positive it hadn’t been rated against dragons—his great black form soared into view. Powerful wings carried him over the marina to land next to my Jeep, his size dwarfing it.
Only a few campers were outside, and nobody seemed to have the ability to see him. Or they were looking the other way if they did. A pall of wariness had descended over the town, and a few of the RVs had pulled out after the fire. They must not have heard the news that all the roads out of the area had been destroyed.
“Were you, by chance, responsible for Shaygor leaving me alone earlier?” I glanced at the time on my phone. “About a half hour ago?”
I instructed him to come and speak with me if he has questions and to leave you alone or another dragon would die in this forsaken world. Zav shape-shifted into his human form, the silver-trimmed black robe and silver slippers not fitting in here in Harrison—or anywhere outside the set for The Hobbit.