Home > False Security (Death Before Dragons #5)(10)

False Security (Death Before Dragons #5)(10)
Author: Lindsay Buroker

The two men—two males—kept glaring at each other and didn’t seem to hear me.

Think I could hoist him over my shoulder and carry him through the gate? I asked Sindari.

I would suggest not doing anything that impinges on his authority.

So, I guess you’re not interested in biting him in the butt.

I am not.

Darn.

Zav scoffed. “Your meager defenses have insufficient power to inconvenience a dragon.”

“We’ll see about that,” Weber said, though he glanced at me, a little uncertain. If he’d gotten most of his magical gadgets recently and hadn’t tested them against more than werewolves, his beliefs about what they could do might be wildly inaccurate. Especially if some numbnuts had told him they would work against dragons.

I shook my head, hoping he would take me as a neutral third party.

While they continued to glare at each other, I got back in the Jeep, waving for Sindari to join me. It occurred to me that the best way to get Zav to leave was to leave myself. I highly doubted he wanted to stick around and bathe in the fountain.

Zav blinked as I drove around him and toward the gate. Fortunately, it opened for me. I drove out slowly in case I was wrong and needed to hurry back to rescue Weber—it was against bodyguard rules to leave one’s charge to be mauled by an irate dragon—but Zav shifted back into his dragon form and flew over the fence after me. With a few beats of his great wings, he passed over the Jeep and landed in the street, breaking the branches of nearby trees as he descended.

The rear-view mirror showed the gate to Weber’s property closing. Hopefully, the magical defenses could be reset and Zav hadn’t broken any of them. I didn’t want to get an angry message from my new boss later.

Zav, not changing out of his dragon form, lowered his head so that his gaze pinned me through the windshield. You will come out and speak with me.

He sounded more pompous and arrogant than ever. Since I felt bad about postponing our trip—a trip he was only planning in order to help me—I kept myself from making a snarky retort.

“I’ll be happy to speak with you when you’re not blocking traffic in and out of the neighborhood.” Fortunately, the dead-end street only had a few houses on it, and nobody had tried to drive down it yet, but that didn’t make my statement untrue. “Come join me, and we’ll grab something to eat on the way over to Zoltan’s. I’ll pay.”

His violet eyes continued to stare through the windshield at me. I was starting to wish I’d taken a few negotiation and mediation classes in college. This wasn’t my strong suit.

“Zoltan’s missing. I need your help. How do you feel about chicken strips?”

Zav’s head rose, disappearing from view, and I envisioned him stomping on the Jeep Godzilla-style in a fit of peevishness, but he shifted into his human form and walked to the passenger side.

“I have explained why it is not a good idea for me to allow you to feed me.” He sat beside me and closed the door.

“They come out the window in a bag. You can feed yourself.” I headed out of the neighborhood and back toward Sand Point Way.

Zav gazed over at me. He seemed more disappointed than angry, but maybe I was reading too much into his silence.

“I was looking forward to uniting you with your real elven kin—” that had to be a dig about Anyasha-sulin, the elf who’d called herself Lirena and pretended to be my cousin, “—and assisting you with finding a tutor.”

“I know, and I really appreciate that. Will you still be willing to do it in a couple of weeks? Maybe you can hunt down a few more criminals while I’m busy guarding that guy.” I tilted my thumb back in the direction of the house.

“I do not like that guy.”

“You don’t like any guys.”

“He was not properly respectful. Death will befall him if a less tolerant dragon ever visits him.”

“Please tell me there aren’t any less tolerant dragons on Earth right now.” I looked over at him. “Your sister isn’t back, is she? Or any of Dob’s relatives?”

“My mother gave my sister an assignment, so she is not here. I am unaware of other dragons presently on this world.”

“That’s a relief.” I pulled into the drive-thru of a fast-food restaurant. “How hungry are you?”

“I am not hungry. That guy also had an inordinate number of magical artifacts in and around his residence that could not have originated on this world. It is likely they are stolen.”

“That’s probably true, but I’m sure Weber wasn’t the one to do it. He probably doesn’t know much about magic and just bought all that stuff to protect himself. He hired me because werewolves have been picking on him. He’s paying me a lot to be his bodyguard.” I pulled up to the speaker and lowered my voice when I added, “Like I said, this gig would get me out of debt. Then maybe I could take time off to go with you to visit elves and research my sword and do all the things I want to do.”

“How can I help you?” a female voice came out of the speaker.

“Mate with me,” Zav said, presumably responding to me and not the worker taking orders.

“I’m sorry,” the puzzled voice said. “Can you repeat that?”

I pressed a hand over Zav’s mouth. “I’d like eight orders of chicken strips.”

“Did you say eight?”

“Make it ten. And we want all the dipping sauces.”

“All right. I’ll have your total for you at the window.”

I lowered my hand and moved the Jeep forward. Fortunately, Zav didn’t appear irked at my presumptuousness.

“Yeah, mating with you is on my wish list. Even if you are a pompous pain in the ass.”

“Excellent. You are a disrespectful sharp-tongued mongrel, but mating with you is also on my wish list.” He said the term carefully, probably his first time using it.

“It’s clear we’re meant for each other.”

Sindari let out a long sigh from the back of the Jeep. Have you forgotten that I’m here?

“No. Did you want some chicken strips too?”

“I do not believe you should trust this Weber,” Zav said, ignoring Sindari, though I was positive he heard him. “Knowingly buying stolen artifacts is not any more legal than stealing them personally. That is the law in the Cosmic Realms.”

“Is it a law that’s only enforced if the artifacts were stolen from dragons?”

He gave me a flat look. “It is only enforced by dragons if the artifacts were stolen from dragons. Lesser species enforce the law among themselves.”

“I’ll keep an eye on him and won’t trust him implicitly, all right?” I had a feeling Zav’s objections wouldn’t be nearly as strong if Weber were a woman.

“He should be more thoroughly inspected before you agree to work for him,” Zav said as we pulled up to the window. “Take me to his house with you tomorrow, and I will investigate his magical acquisitions more thoroughly.”

“I’m sure Weber would adore that.”

“What he adores is irrelevant.”

“As long as he’s paying me, his adorations are relevant.”

“As my Tlavar’vareous sha, only my adorations should be relevant to you.”

The girl leaned out with two big bags, her brow furrowed as she caught part of the conversation. Given that marijuana was legal in Washington, I refused to believe this was the weirdest discussion she’d heard at this job. It probably wasn’t even the weirdest discussion that night.

I paid and set the bags of food in Zav’s lap. Despite his assertion that he wasn’t hungry, he sniffed and poked into them with interest.

The girl peered across me toward him, then smirked and gave me a thumbs-up as I drove off. Maybe she’d caught that bit about mating after all.

One of the paper bags rustled, the scent of fried chicken filling the Jeep. “Make sure to leave a couple for me.”

Zav pulled out napkins, tossed them to the floor at his feet, then lifted some of the containers of dipping sauces. He removed the lids and sniffed them. He wrinkled his nose, put the lids back on, and tossed them down with the napkins. Finally, he withdrew a chicken strip and examined it from all angles.

Despite the late hour, the traffic was heavy, so I had to pay attention to it instead of his continued examination of the food, but it amused me nonetheless. At a light, I texted Dimitri to see if anything had changed.

“There is something stuck to this meat,” Zav announced.

“It’s the breading. It’s deep-fried. You’ll love it. Everyone loves deep-fried food.”

I found blood on the floor, Dimitri replied.

Human blood or vampire blood?

What’s the difference?

Every vampire I’ve beheaded had sludgy, congealed blackish blood.

Ew. How many vampires have you beheaded?

Enough that Zoltan should avoid billing me as much as he does.

The blood was bright red and fresh. I need Sindari to come track whoever left it.

Be there in twenty minutes.

The light turned, and I put the phone away. Zav was tossing more things onto the floor.

“Why are you making a mess?”

“Dragons do not eat breading.” He scraped more off and dropped it at his feet, then stuffed an entire strip into his mouth and chomped. “Much better.”

“I’ll look for an all-carnivore fast-food place next time.”

“Excellent. It pleases me when you seek to accommodate me.”

“I’m so glad.” I shook my head. I’d never had to deal with a date like this. Who would have thought a dragon would be a picky eater?

The next light was under a bright streetlamp, which illuminated the utter mess of napkins, condiments, and a huge pile of breading on the floor between Zav’s feet.

“Is it considered disrespectful to ask a dragon to clean up after himself?” I asked.

Zav gazed over at me as he chewed on a denuded chicken strip. He looked contented rather than irked, and I remembered that food made dragons randy. He flicked a finger, and a burst of flame came from the floor. I jerked in surprise, but the flame went out quickly, leaving only smoke and the scent of charred food. He’d incinerated the trash, including the condiments. I guessed I wasn’t getting any honey mustard with my strips.

   
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