Page 13 of Magpies & Mayhem
Her parents had objected to her eloping with Levi and requested they be allowed to throw her a formal wedding, which was a big deal in elvish society. She hated being the center of attention and wasn’t a huge fan of the planning stage either, so her mom was doing most of that. But I’d taken over where I could, hoping to take some pressure off of Elara.
“What else is left to do? I only get to be your Maid-of-Honor twice, so I’m going to do it right,” I joked, with my head dangling over the back of the chair as the ceiling spun slowly in circles above me. There were only a few days left until the big event, which she was low-key dreading, but I was more excited than I wanted to let on. This was the closest I would ever come to attending something like a royal ball. I could do this. One day at a time.
MaybeIcouldn’tdothis.
We’d switched to burning fish for the baby dragon, but I wasn’t sure the smell was an improvement over burnt rat. He definitely preferred the rat.
It was a good thing shifters healed quickly, because I was constantly covered in rapidly healing bruises and scratches. This adorable little guy was awild thing. My house was in shambles because he kept getting into everything. We had to keep a strict eye on him every second because he was literally climbing the walls. He’d easily destroyed the playpen, shredded the sofa, and tried to eat part of a couch cushion. Then last night he crashed through the bathroom door trying to get to me while I peed because, apparently, we’d adopted the Kool-Aid guy.
And I know baby animals—and people—don’t sleep well, but I wouldn’t have thought that applied to reptiles, even magical ones. The real problem was, I couldn’t handle his cries. Every time he squeaked or moved at night, I’d wake up in a panic, with my skin feeling too tight. Something about his squeaky little sounds just sent my heart hammering into overdrive and made me need to fix whatever he was upset about. Some of the books I’d read said dragons can affect those around them with their magic, but it sounded like there was some kind of bonding process necessary for that to happen. I didn’t know what was going on, but I was way more attached to this dragon than I had ever been to any other animal in my care. Just a few more days and we could take him back to the rescue center, where they’d give him a ‘soft release’ with the other dragons in a large enclosure built to mimic their natural environment. Then, after they’d proved they could hunt effectively, they’d all be taken up into the mountains for a proper release. That was the game plan anyway. I hoped I could handle letting him go.
So, when I walked into our apartment after another day of work and helping Elara finish more of her wedding stuff, I felt like I’d entered the twilight zone. “What are you doing?” I asked my brother. The house was destroyed, but that was normal at this point.
Josh was sitting on the couch watching something on his calling stones, but he had the dragon strapped to his chest using a weird buckle and harness contraption. And I’m pretty sure he was feeding it chips.
“Are you feeding that dragonDoritos?” I could already feel the vein in my forehead bulging.
“As a matter of fact—ow! Hey, ow! Calm down!” The dragon flapped his wings, battering Josh in the face as he fought to wrap his arms around them to contain it. “As a matter of fact, yes. Humphrey Herbert Hucklebee, the Fierce,lovesDoritos. We’ve been having a great time watching baking shows.” The dragon gave a happy sounding trill.
“Do you think Doritos are a natural part of a dragon’sdiet, Josh?”
“I don’t think Doritos are a natural part of anyone’s diet,Sidney. But it makes him happy.”
“It’s nothealthy, Joshua.You don’t feed a baby reptile chips! You don’t feed a babyanythingchips. And what are youwearing?”
Josh was completely unconcerned with my tirade. “This,” he said smugly, “is a baby carrier. Aaron went on a Void-run today and brought us back snacks and this thing called a Baby Björn. I had to cut some extra holes for his tail and his wings, and it took a while to figure out all the buckles and straps, but he’s been contained all day and hasn’t destroyed any more of my plants.” He looked so proud of himself.
My brothers had about two brain cells to rub together between the three of them, and today obviously wasn’t Josh’s day to use the brain cells.
I took a deep breath and let it out as slowly as I could. Josh smiled at me and fed the dragon another chip. I lunged for his throat.
Iwasupforanother evening of bandaging knuckles at a boxing match and making sure my oldest brother, Sam, didn’t get his face smashed in too badly. Sam had always been into mixed martial arts and had been backroom brawling for cash for as long as I could remember. My motherhatedit. Now that he was over thirty, I wasn’t sure how many years he had left in him for this, but I was looking forward to making a good chunk of change from the bookies tonight, at least. My brother was a beast in a fight, and yet people still placed bets on the orcs or trolls who fought him because they were bigger.
The fights were always held in some abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town, so I was ducking through seedy back alleys and side-streets when I caught a whiff of vampire on the damp night air. I stopped in my tracks because that wasn’t just any vampire, it was Jordan-vampire. There wasn’t any cigarette smoke mixed in with it, I noted with puzzled amusement. Had he really quit smoking just because I didn’t like it?
I turned on my heel, casting my gaze around the alleyway and up to the rooftops where his scent was drifting from.What is he up to? Literally.
A dumpster on the far side of the alley caught my attention, and I climbed on top so I could see the roof. There was no point in bothering with stealth or trying to be quiet. Vampires could hear better than anyone I knew. He would have heard me creeping around from three blocks away. I landed on the lid of the dumpster with a bang. The scuff of a shoe from the rooftop told me he was on the move, and by the time I hauled myself up to the gutter, he was gone.
I half-considered shifting forms to chase him down as a bird, but I was too lazy to get dressed again and I was already late to meet with my brother.Stupid, sexy vampire.I hopped down to continue on with my trek, but my mind kept drifting back to the way Jordan had looked at me as I’d kneeled between his legs.
Chapter 8
I’dfinallygottenalead. Three nights ago, I’d spotted Rowdy in a crowded saloon called ‘The Salty Wench’ and cornered him, demanding to know if he was in on the egg smuggling that I’d uncovered in the Void. He was the one that told Bane about the warehouse in the first place, after all. Rowdy denied it, of course, but promised he’d ask around with his crew and find out which supply lines the eggs had come in on.
Last night, he’d come back with some answers for me. Phantoms were responsible for the dragon egg smuggling, and while the two guys I’d stuffed in a closet weren’t officially part of the gang, they worked with them, and the Phantoms weren’t happy about them ending up in the clink. Luckily, they didn’t know who I was, but they werepissedabout their missing eggs, and they had my description, so I had a tenuous target painted on my back. I wasn’t happy about it, but I also didn’t regret my actions. It didn’t really change anything anyway. They’d already made me angry by coming after Elara. Now I just had more incentive to ferret out where they were and what they were up to.
And Rowdy had come through. His crew had given him multiple new locations where they’d seen what was left of the Phantom network frequenting. It was go time.
I wasn’t looking to start a fight. Yet. I just wanted to poke around and see what was going on. I’d winged my way through several of the areas Rowdy’s crew had described already this evening and not found much of note, but at least now I had some ideas of where to keep an eye out. I landed in my feathered form on the tallest building in the industrial part of Dry Gulch, looking for the last place he told me about. Trying to stay low, I worked my way from rooftop to rooftop until I found an old two-story building that matched his description. This one had some activity, guys moving crates in and out of an alleyway in the back.
No sooner had I landed than another bird landed on the gutter beside me, one I recognized. I tried to ignore him, but he wasn’t going to let me. I don’t know where he came from, or how he knew me, or why he followed me, but this pigeon made a nuisance of himself every time he found me in bird form around Dry Gulch.
Pigeons get a bad rap. They have this reputation for being dirty, or unintelligent, but they’re just as clean as most birds and can be surprisingly smart. Not this particular bird though. Just like there are variations among any population, there are certain birds that just don’t have much going on upstairs, and this pigeon had rocks for brains.
“Go away.” I tried to send him on his way with a quick jab from my beak, but he misinterpreted my violence as ‘mutual grooming’ and immediately began to ‘display’ for me.
“Pidgy, get out of here.” I raised my wings and opened my beak: a threat display.
