Discount Armageddon

Ten

The upstairs storage room of an unnamed and highly questionable diner

FIVE MINUTES, A HASTILY-COMPLETED WRAPPING JOB, and a pair of jeans later, I was sitting atop an antique stove and running my weapon checks, watching Dominic out of the corner of my eye. He was pacing back and forth along the length of the room, his steps thudding in an almost martial rhythm. It was a stable enough beat to be soothing, and there was a decent chance that he’d hit a rotten patch and fall through the floor into the diner below us. That kept it interesting.

“There’s one major problem with your ‘solution,’” I said. “Dragons are extinct. The Covenant wiped them out centuries ago.”

Dominic favored me with a look of withering disdain. “Did we?”

“Hello, not the one who writes the propaganda, remember? But, yeah, according to everything I’ve ever read and everyone I’ve ever talked to, human or cryptid.” If the dragons were still alive, the dragon princesses would know about it—they’d have to know, since all the old bestiaries claimed that the two species lived in a sort of symbiosis. If there were still dragons, the dragon princesses probably wouldn’t be working in strip clubs and living in neighborhoods just this side of demilitarized zones.

“Nonetheless, it seems that a few may have escaped extermination.”

I looked up from securing my ankle holster, fixing him with a disgusted stare. “Here’s a tip: wiping out a sentient species isn’t ‘extermination.’ It’s genocide. Get your terminology straight.”

“Dragons fed on humans.”

“When humans went into their caves to steal their stuff, you’re damn right they did! If the dragons had been from Texas, they would’ve gotten awards from the homeowners’ association, not a gang of medieval vigilantes looking to skin their asses.”

Dominic looked at me blankly. “What does Texas have to do with anything?”

“Wow, they didn’t give you any cultural acclimatization before they dropped you here, did they? Did the Covenant want you to get eaten?” I slid off the stove. “Okay, so fine, let’s assume you’re right, and everything we thought we knew is wrong, and there’s a dragon sleeping somewhere under the city of New York.” I paused. “Not the entire city, or even a borough, right? Just a few blocks or something? Because I don’t think I’m equipped to deal with a dragon that’s actually the size of New York.” A dragon the size of Manhattan was too much to think about, especially if there was a chance it was hostile. The old family story about Grandma taking on an entire hive of Apraxis wasps with nothing but some concussion grenades aside, we’re taught never to go up against impossible odds if there’s any other choice.

“Not the entire city,” said Dominic. He paused, a discomfited look crossing his face. It was an oddly attractive expression on him, softening his features from their usual perpetual arrogance and turning them into something a girl wouldn’t mind seeing, say, on the other side of the table at breakfast. “At least, I don’t believe so. The largest recorded dragon was no larger than a blue whale.”

“I probably shouldn’t find that as reassuring as I do.” I picked up my bag. “So we’re assuming there’s a dragon. I don’t want you calling reinforcements, since they’d just wipe out the cryptids I’m trying to protect, and I’ll bet you don’t want me calling reinforcements either.”

“Not particularly,” he said, his normal arrogance creeping across his face like frost across a window on a cold morning. “You already have me far too outnumbered to enjoy.”

“Me and my army of cryptids that don’t listen to a damn thing I say, we’re scary,” I agreed. “Why do you think there’s a dragon?”

“I’d rather not say just as yet,” Dominic replied, stiffly.

“Great.” I sighed. “Let’s say I believe you. So now what do we do?”

“I suppose we determine whether or not I’m correct, and decide what to do from there.”

I gave him a thoughtful look. Something in the way that he was standing… “You don’t want to be right, do you?”

“Not particularly.”

“Why not? I mean, if it’s a dragon, I can’t really stop you from killing it. Not unless it speaks English and likes blonde girls well enough to listen to one and, even then, only if it feels like turning you into a charcoal briquette.”

Dominic smiled briefly, eyebrows rising. “Good to know that your plans for me include immolation.”

“I’m flexible. I can flex.” I shrugged. “I’ll happily dispose of your corpse in a nondraconic manner, once we know what’s really going on.”

“Fair enough. As for why I’m not terribly pleased about the idea of being right, well. This is my first time in the field. I’d rather not start my career with a failed dragon slaying.” There was something else there—something he wasn’t saying to me yet. I could see its shadow in his eyes.

Better not to push. “That’s cool. I don’t want to call my folks.”

“Then we’re in agreement. I suppose that once we’ve determined the true nature of the threat at hand, we’ll…” He stopped, mouth continuing to move for a moment with no sound coming out.

It was hard not to feel bad for the guy. Sure, he was a stone killer, but he’d been raised that way, and you don’t blame a snake for biting. He wasn’t used to being lost like the rest of us. “You don’t know either, do you?”

Clearly frustrated, Dominic shook his head. “No. I’m not accustomed to lacking a plan of action.”

“That’s okay.” I smiled wryly. “I’m a Price. We’re basically the reason the universe invented improv.”

“Well, then, I suppose I had best stick with you.”

“Don’t think this means I’m not still pissed at you for fucking up my competition,” I said. “Now come on. Let’s go dragon hunting.”

My usual means of information gathering involves hitting the homes and workplaces of the local sentient cryptids and asking what’s been going on at (or sometimes under) the street level. That wasn’t an option with Dominic along. Neither was my customary overland approach. While he wasn’t uncomfortable on rooftops, exactly, he drew the line at throwing himself over the edges.

“Oh, come on,” I cajoled, as we walked down a dark alley that stunk like human urine and recycled grease from the vents of the Chinese deli. There was also the sweet, slightly spicy scent of gingerbread undercutting it all; this was part of a Madhura’s feeding ground. That was comforting. I hadn’t been aware that we had any Madhura left in the city. Things couldn’t be that bad if they hadn’t all fled.

Dominic’s eyes moved constantly as we walked, darting from side to side as he took in the alley walls around us. He wrinkled his nose when the stink first became apparent, but he hadn’t said a word about the Madhura. Lack of practical experience was definitely not an asset for new Covenant field agents. “I said no. Gravity is not a toy.”

“It’s not like I’m asking you to let me cast some sort of flight spell on you.” He gave me a sharp look. I raised my hands. “I didn’t say I could cast a flight spell, you dork. I’m not a witch. I’m just saying this would go faster if we weren’t restricted to the speed of our feet.”

“Again, no. You may take pleasure in taunting the laws of physics, but I prefer to save my brushes with death for times when they’re actually necessary.”

“Now you sound like my father.”

Dominic snorted. “God forbid.”

I stopped where I was, giving him a narrow-eyed look. “Exactly what is that supposed to mean?”

Dominic turned to face me, crossing his arms over his chest. “Do you really want to have that conversation here and now, when I may be the only chance you have of finding this creature before it does real damage to your precious city?”

“Yeah, I think I do. What, exactly, is that supposed to mean?”

“Only that no respectable member of the Covenant wishes to be told he sounds like a traitor.”

“Uh, first, mister, my father’s not a traitor. He never belonged to your stupid Covenant. None of us did. If you want traitors, you’ll have to go back at least two generations, and if you ask the mice, they weren’t traitors even then.”

Dominic blinked, looking nonplussed. “Ask the what?”

I was just getting warmed up. “Plus, what makes you God’s gift to cryptozoology? Why are you my only shot at finding something that may ‘only’ be the size of a blue whale? I’m a Price, but I’m not an idiot. I’m pretty sure I can find something that big without your help. All you’re doing is keeping me off the rooftops, scaring the local cryptids, and slowing me down.”

“And what is it that you think you can do for my search, exactly? Are you planning to tango gaily down the yellow brick road to victory? You’re a traitor, from a family of traitors, and there’s not a damn thing you can do that I can’t do without you!”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yes!”

I was having a heated argument, verging on a shouting match, in a deserted alley with a member of the Covenant of St. George who had seen me get dressed, and thus knew where all of my weapons were located. I’d been monitoring escape routes the whole time, and the prospects were pretty bleak; if he didn’t have anything ranged, I might be able to make it to the dumpster and use that to boost myself to the exhaust vents from the deli. After that, I’d have to improvise.

Dominic stepped closer, sensing victory in my hesitation. His chin was slightly raised, giving me an excellent view of his arrogant, irritating features. My chest tightened as my already sped-up pulse kicked into overdrive. I was essentially cornered. I could flee, or I could fight … and if there’s one thing I’ve spent my life learning, it’s that there’s always more than one way to wage a war.

“Try doing this without me,” I said. Leaning onto my toes with the ease that comes from dancing a thousand rumbas with men half a foot taller than me, I put a hand on the back of his head and pressed my lips to his.

Kissing a man is a lot like dancing the tango: somebody leads and somebody follows, and the traditional form says it’s the man who controls the dance. I’ve never been one to stick to tradition when it isn’t essential. And that turned out to be a good thing, because the kiss was, well … I’ve had better. Maybe because I wasn’t sure, from the way Dominic was kissing me back, that he’d ever had anything at all.

I’ve had a lot of practice at dancing with amateurs. I kissed him with more urgency, waiting for his instincts to kick in and remind him of the steps his hindbrain almost certainly knew. There was a moment of puzzled hesitation on Dominic’s part, like he didn’t quite understand what I was doing. Then his arms were around me, crushing me against his chest and surrounding me with the warm, masculine scents of leather and clean sweat. There’s nothing sweeter than the smell of a man who likes to keep himself clean and has managed to run himself into a lather. It means somebody’s been doing something physical, and it means something else physical might be on the table. I felt my body responding and pressed myself harder against him. The buckle of my holster bit into my belly hard enough to leave a bruise. He’d have a matching one, if the angle of our bodies was any indication. I had more important things on my mind.

He kissed with an urgency that was entirely out of keeping with his businesslike demeanor, possibly because he wasn’t getting kissed nearly often enough. The muscles in his torso were as hard as I’d expected them to be. That wasn’t all that was hard—if there’d been any question about how enthusiastic he was about returning my advances, it was answered by the feeling of him pushing up against my thigh.

The answer changed as he abruptly pushed me away, hard enough to send me staggering into the alley wall. “Hey—” I protested.

“What was the meaning of that?!” He glared at me, cheeks darkening as some of the blood began returning to his head. Pity. I’d liked it better when it was busy with certain other parts of his anatomy.

“You said there was nothing you could do with me that you couldn’t do by yourself.” I was cranky enough over being shoved away that I decided to twist the knife, and blew him a mocking kiss. “If you can do that by yourself, you should look into getting a place with the circus.”

“You are an insolent, irresponsible, immature little bitch!”

“And you’re an arrogant asshole, and there may be a dragon under this city. Now can we stop the dick waving and start figuring out how we’re going to deal with this? Or do I have to kiss you again?”

Dominic hesitated, making me wonder, for a brief second, whether he wanted to be kissed as much as I wanted to kiss him. Then he glowered, shaking his head. “Fine,” he said sullenly. “What do you suggest?”

“First off? I suggest we go and find the Madhura that lives in this area. She may know something.”

“The what?” He looked at me blankly.

I almost had to laugh at that. “Oh, man. For a big, bad dragon hunter, you sure have a lot to learn. Come on.”

We found our Madhura behind the counter of a tiny café called “Gingerbread Pudding.” She was a petite, attractive woman of Indian descent, wearing a sapphire blue T-shirt and a bright red apron embroidered with “Come catch me! Be a Gingerbread Fan!” Her thick black hair was bound into two long braids that dangled over her shoulders as she served a slab of dark brown gingerbread and a cup of hot chocolate to a customer, smiling all the while. The Madhura are attracted to sweet things. They thrive on honey the way dragon princesses thrive on gold, or bogeymen thrive on information. Working in a place that specialized in desserts was probably close to her inborn idea of Heaven.

Dominic eyed the Madhura with evident bewilderment as we waited for our turn to approach the counter, nostrils flaring slightly as he detected the distinct spiciness of her pheromones. A happy Madhura is close to irresistible. It’s part of what’s kept them alive for so long. “What is she?” he asked, voice pitched low.

“Madhura. They’re originally from the Indian subcontinent. They used to be worshiped as gods and goddesses of plenty, because they always knew where the honey was.” We took another step forward as the line advanced. “They’re harmless, they’re friendly, and they usually know what’s going on.”

His expression darkened. “I don’t believe we share the same definition of ‘harmless.’”

I dug an elbow into his side. “Just shut up and let me talk.”

He glared but fell silent as the last customer collected his purchases and went to take a seat, letting us step forward. The Madhura turned her smile in our direction, saying, “Welcome to Gingerbread Pudding. I’m Piyusha. What can I get for you today?”

“Whatever you think is good, and some information.” I did my best to look harmless as I offered a return smile, and said, “My name’s Verity Price. This is my … friend … Dominic. We wanted to talk to you, if we could.”

Piyusha’s smile froze in place as she glanced between us, finally saying, “Verity Price? As in…?”

“Yes. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on. Please?” Dominic was still glaring. I dug an elbow into his side. He grimaced. “I promise we won’t take up too much of your time.”

“All right.” Piyusha nodded toward a door marked “Employees Only.” “Head in the back. I’m going to get one of the other girls to take the counter, and I’ll be right with you.”

“Thanks a lot,” I said, and took Dominic’s hand, towing him along with me as I followed Piyusha’s instructions. The people who had been in line behind us grumbled darkly as she slipped out from behind the counter, leaving them temporarily without a server. The door between us and the café swung shut, and we were left alone.

Piyusha was true to her word: she came into the small employee break room about eight minutes later, carrying a tray loaded with two slices of frosted gingerbread, two large mugs of chocolate milk, and a small plate of graham crackers and honey. She took a seat across from us at the card table that dominated the break room, putting down her tray so that the gingerbread was oriented toward me and Dominic, while the crackers and honey were closer to her.

“Now,” she said, focusing her attention on me, “to what do I owe the honor of the attention of your family?”

“We want information about the dragon,” said Dominic, his tone barely short of rude.

Piyusha froze in the act of reaching for one of her graham crackers, simply staring at Dominic. Finally, she allowed her hand to drop to her lap and looked to me once more, asking politely, “Is he a member of your family, or is he a member of the Covenant?”

“The latter.” Seeing the burgeoning panic in her eyes, I added, “But he’s promised not to hunt anyone who helps us in our investigation unless they become an active threat to the local human community.” That was a transition that would mark them for a hunt by my family, as well as by the Covenant. No matter how much we may like a cryptid, once they start hunting people, they have to be put down. That’s part of the service we provide to the local ecology of the places we live.

Dominic glanced at me, frowning. I kicked him under the table. We’d discuss the promises he hadn’t actually made but was damn well going to adhere to later, after I’d calmed down our friendly neighborhood Madhura.

“I … see,” said Piyusha, relaxing marginally. She picked up one of her graham crackers, dipping it into the honey. “I’m not the most connected in this city. I work in a dessert café, y’know? But I do hear things, sometimes. Things that aren’t always all that nice.” She looked between us, still spinning her graham cracker in the honey. “You swear he’s not going to come back here and hunt me?”

“I swear. If he does, he’s the one endangering the ecosystem, not you.”

Piyusha relaxed further. “You should try your gingerbread. It’s really good. Secret café recipe, people have the stuff shipped all over the place, because you can’t get it anywhere else.”

“Cool. Thanks.” I picked up my fork, using it to slice off a sliver of gingerbread. Dominic grudgingly did the same.

That seemed to have been the last piece Piyusha needed to convince her that we weren’t intending to set her on fire. “Like I said, I’m not the most connected person around, but what I’ve heard is that not everyone who’s leaving is actually, y’know, leaving. Some of them just disappear. No notes, no forwarding addresses, nothing.”

“Well, that happens,” I said. “Especially with news of the Covenant being in town getting out—”

“Does it usually happen with the lamia?”

That stopped me. The lamia are sort of like centaurs, if you expand your definition of “centaur” to include “body of the world’s biggest fucking snake.” They’re more clannish than the dragon princesses, with even better reason. They can’t blend in human society, and their endothermic metabolisms mean that they’re weak and disoriented whenever the weather gets too cold. “Safety in numbers” is the lamia creed … and no lamia I’ve ever known or read about would abandon their nest without a damn good reason.

Seeing my confusion, Piyusha pressed, “How about the hidebehinds? Four of them have disappeared.”

“How can you tell?” I asked automatically. Then I shook my head. “Sorry. That was flippant and speciesist. I just … why hasn’t anybody told me this?”

“Maybe because there’s a member of the Covenant in town? I mean, you brought him here. To me. You led him to me.” Piyusha worried her lower lip between her teeth before adding, “It sort of creeps me out.”

“Madam, I assure you, I could have found you on my own,” said Dominic, frostily.

Piyusha met his eyes straight-on, squaring her shoulders. “Would you like to bet on that?”

“This is fun, but it’s not helpful,” I said. “Do the ones who’ve disappeared have anything in common? Species, geographic location, anything?”

“They were all female, and they were all unmarried or unmated,” said Piyusha. She worried her lip again, and then added, “Some went missing during the day, and some went missing at night. A few were regular customers. I’ve been thinking about getting out of town.”

“That just might be a good idea.” I pulled my wallet out of my bag and produced a business card, setting it on the tray next to her graham crackers and honey. “Call me if you need anything, or if you find anything else that might help us figure out what’s going on. If it really is a dragon—”

“I’ll call you,” said Piyusha. Looking at her face, I could almost believe she meant it. She picked up the card, laughing nervously as she tucked it into her pocket. “My brothers aren’t going to believe that I met a real Price. Sunil’s convinced you people are just fairy tales.”

“We don’t get enough happily-ever-afters for that,” I said.

Piyusha’s expression sobered. “No, I guess you wouldn’t.” She glanced at Dominic. “That’s all I know. I’m sorry I couldn’t help more.”

It wasn’t hard to catch her drift. “Don’t worry. You’ve helped more than enough. Hasn’t she?”

“Yes,” said Dominic. He managed to make the word sound like it pained him.

I stood. “We won’t take up any more of your time. You’ll call?”

“I’ll call,” Piyusha said firmly.

We exchanged polite farewells as Dominic rose, and she walked the two of us to the door, waving off my offer of payment with a laugh that only sounded slightly forced. I found myself liking her more by the moment. Through the glass, I saw her returning to her place behind the counter. Then we walked away, and I never saw her alive again.