Dragons Luck

“I asked you first,” she said, and stuck out her tongue like a child.

“Of course you did.”

Fly

“Of course,” Mai said, as if reading his thoughts, “I have made a career out of breaking old rules.”

“Yes, you have. Whereas I have made them work for me. To answer the question that you did not ask first”—Fly

“Of course you would. And I would like to see him harness his potential,” Mai said.

“What, with nothing in return?” Fly

“Well, he is fun in bed.”

“Marry me, Mai,” Fly

For the first time Mai’s expression dipped to a frown. Fly

“We have been down that road. Not a chance, Earl.”

“You know I hate to be called that,” he said.

“Of course,” she said.

“We would have been absolutely terrible for each other.”

“Perhaps. You will never find out now will you? That is what you get for courting my father, when you should have been courting me.”

She stood and smoothed her skirt into place. Fly

“I thought you should know—now that I know you’re in the game, I will undo whatever it is you have set in motion,” Mai said.

“If you can. I always could check your moves in the past.” Fly

“But, as you said, it has been a long time.”

Mai began to move to the door, then paused. When she turned, her smile was back on her face. She reached down her dйcolletage, and drew out a small envelope.

“Oh yes, this was taped to your door. Sorry if I peeked.” She handed it to him, smiled once more, and left before he could open it. He shook his head, looking at the door. Well, the game was now worth staying around for at least. He opened the envelope.

The contents were even more surprising than Mai’s presence.

A Knight of Swords tarot card.

He half growled to himself and chucked it in the wastepaper basket. He wasn’t irritated by the card so much, but by the puzzle. Had the minx really found it? Or worse, had she brought it herself?

Could Mai know he’d hired George?

Twenty-one

Val didn’t know what to do.

It had taken a day for the cuts on her face to heal to thin pink lines. It had been a day where she had avoided everyone. A day when she looked inside, tried to figure out what she should do. What she could do.

Her first reaction was to protect her brother. The thoughts that followed that were more convoluted. Which protected Griffen more? Telling him about the threat of Lizzy or heeding her warning? And somewhere in the darker parts of Val’s mind, she wondered if she was really protecting him at all or if she was just afraid.

That thought she pushed quickly away. What filled her wasn’t fear, it was anger. Every time she thought about that fight, brief though it might have been, her hands tightened into fists and her jaw clenched. If only she knew where Lizzy was. If only she had reason to believe that this time there was a chance that things would be different.

She had spent a lot of time in the last day staring into her mirror. Watching the cuts on her face. It seemed that they almost healed as she watched, the speed of her flesh knitting just slightly slower than the eye could follow. As if she could watch for just a second more and actually see the change. But she always blinked eventually, and when she looked back… well, who could be sure?

So much for not believing in being a dragon. As if a brawl with a shape-changing psycho bitch hadn’t been enough for her. Something inside Val shifted suddenly. Her worldview, and self-image, changing ever so slightly.

They looked little more than scratches now, those cuts from those odd claws. She was tired of hiding. She needed to move, to walk, to center herself. Valerie hit the streets.

She didn’t think about where she was walking. She just walked, still sorting through her own thoughts and emotions. However, unlike her jog a few days ago, when she had tuned the world out, she only let part of herself sink inside now. She seemed almost hyperaware of the people she passed, instincts judging each for level of threat, and rational mind backing up the judgments with a second glance.

She was just so angry. Furious. On the brink of true rage, and the sad thing was that her anger wasn’t aimed toward Lizzy. She was angry at herself. Valerie always thought of herself as so strong, so confident. She had devoted a good chunk of her life to being as fit and competent as she could be. It wasn’t the fact that she lost that bothered her. It was how badly she lost, how little she had fazed Lizzy. She should have done something more, hurt her more.

Valerie needed to recenter.

She realized just where she was a few doors away from her destination. She hesitated for only a moment, then decided to trust her feet, trust her instincts. She walked up to one of the security doors that marked the entrances to the French Quarter apartment buildings and rang the top buzzer.

It was a few minutes before Gris-gris opened the door and looked at Valerie in surprise. She hadn’t even thought of what time it was, and didn’t now. She had her hands on his collar and her mouth against his before he could even say hello.

He still hadn’t had a chance to speak as they moved inside, the security door closing behind them.

Uncounted hours later, Valerie lay atop Gris-gris. She idly nuzzled at the hinge of his jaw and shifted her weight subtly, back and forth. Testing his… stamina.

Gris-gris moaned softly and ran his fingers down her long spine, tips of them playing against her tailbone.

“You don’t quit, do ya?” he said.

“M

Other small marks, from harder bites, decorated his dark skin. Still moving idly, languorous, she slipped to his side, one leg curled around his. She couldn’t help gently licking at one of the half-moon-shaped marks.

Gris-gris reached down and gently cupped her chin, drawing her face to his. She was taller than him, but curled against him as she was, her eyes were level with his. Both pairs were slightly unfocused, heavy, but his also held a touch of concern.

“So, ready to tell me what was wrong?”

“You saying something was wrong for you?” she all but growled, surprised at her own tone.

“Meant before,” Gris-gris said. “When you came to my door.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.

She took her chin out of his hand firmly and rested her cheek on his chest. She didn’t feel like looking into his eyes anymore.

“Come on, Val. You never been like this before. All the times we’ve been together, you’ve been together. This is the first time I’ve seen you so… needful. Not just hungry. You needed to feel good, and you needed to get and keep control.”

“Are you complaining?” Val said.

“You know I’m not.”

“Then, hush. Just like a guy to ruin things with the wrong kind of pillow talk.”

She really didn’t want to go there. Especially since he was right. As soon as they were in his apartment, she had taken control and kept it. Not just control of the situation, but control of herself. She had almost hurt him with her strength when they first began.

What he’d missed was how much good it had done her. Controlling herself while abandoning herself, it had been a difficult balance, but it had given her what she needed. She felt herself again. Despite never having used quite these means to “center” herself before.