Dragons Luck

“What are you doing?” Lowell said, looking at the changeling.

Tammy looked up from her cell phone.

“I’m calling Mr. McCandles,” she said. “This whole thing is getting out of hand.”

“Whistling up the dragon to bail you out of trouble?” the vampire sneered. “Well, he isn’t strong enough to stop me if I really wanted to get into it with Animal Man here. Oh, put that thing away. We aren’t…”

He started to reach for Tammy’s phone, but Slim knocked his hand away.

“I don’t care how bad you think you are,” he snarled. “You don’t touch her while she’s with me. Leastwise, not unless she wants you to.”

“And you don’t lay hands on me!” Lowell hissed. “Better men than you have learned to regret taking such liberties.”

Again, Gustov stepped between them.

“Gentlemen,” he said. “There’s no call for…”

“And I told you before to back off, Fido,” Slim said.

“Around here, a man fights his own battles once he starts ’em.”

The shape-shifter struck a stance.

“That’s twice you’ve insulted me, Slim,” he snarled. “Both times I was trying to help. But if you…”

“What’s going on here?”

Griffen McCandles appeared out of the darkness, striding toward them.

There was a frozen moment, as everyone held his pose in tableau like a bunch of guilty children when the front door opens. Then everyone started talking at once.

“We were just…”

“The man threatened to…”

“Started to go off on me over…”

Griffen held up his hand, and they lapsed into silence.

“Let’s try this one at a time,” he said. “Lowell?”

“Gustov asked me a question regarding basic animal-control skill,” the vampire said. “We came up here, away from the tourist traffic, so I could give him a minor demonstration. Slim here came along and took exception to what I was doing. Something about offending the dignity of a rat. It went downhill from there.”

“I see,” Griffen said. “Slim? Anything to add?”

“He was makin’ it stand up on its hind legs and dance,” Slim said with a scowl. “To me, that’s abusin’ the power.”

Griffen remembered how offended Slim had gotten when it was suggested that he use his animal-control skills in his street act.

“Did you say that to him?” he said.

“No. I just asked him to stop,” the street entertainer said. “Don’t figure it’s my place to try to tell someone else how to use their abilities.”

“That was it, then?” Griffen said. “A disagreement over how one’s powers are to be used? I thought that was the kind of thing that was supposed to be talked out at this conclave.”

“It got a bit heated, Mr. McCandles,” Tammy put in.

“There was some name-calling and muscle flexing. All in all, I’d say it was just a misunderstanding that got a little out of hand.”

“Very well,” Griffen said. “We’ll leave it at that. I think a round of apologies is in order, and after that we can all forget it.”

“I ain’t apologizin’ to him after what he said,” Slim said stubbornly.

“All right,” Griffen said, turning to the other two. “Lowell, Gustov, on behalf of the conclave, let me apologize for any offense offered you tonight. We know that there are a lot of old grudges and biases here, and we’re all trying to work past them.”

“Thank you, Mr. McCandles,” the vampire said. “I, too, must apologize for my comments. They were said in the heat of the moment when I felt I was being challenged.”

“And thank you, Lowell,” Griffen said with a slight bow. “Now, if we’re all… Slim?”

Slim was ten yards away, striding off down the Moonwalk with his shoulders in an angry set.

Apparently not everyone was ready to forgive and forget.

Forty-two

Griffen was sitting at one of the back tables in the Irish pub. While he normally sat at the bar so he could chat with the other regulars or the bartender, tonight he opted for solitude, and the others respected it. Sipping his usual Irish whiskey in larger-than-usual gulps, he brooded about the altercation with Slim.

Of all people to cause an altercation at the conclave, he would never have figured Slim. If anything, the street entertainer was the one who had served as Griffen’s advisor about what to expect and how to handle it. For him to be the one to pick a fight with attendees from not one, but two other groups went beyond surprising.

Once again Griffen ran through what had been said and done once he arrived on the scene, but still he was at a loss to find a better way he could have played it. The situation had simply degenerated too far by then, and all he could do was attempt damage control.

“Hey, lover!”

Startled, he glanced up as Mai plopped down on an empty chair at the table, drink in hand. It said something about how focused he was that he had not even noticed that she had come in.

“Oh. Hi, Mai,” he said, forcing a smile.

“Are you okay?” she asked, leaning forward to peer at him. “You look a little down.”

“Just a bit tired is all,” Griffen said. “This conclave thing has been ru

“Well, I sure haven’t seen much of you,” Mai said, leaning back. “I was just a little worried about you, is all. Thought you might be upset over your go-round with Slim.”

Griffen stared at her.

“How in the world did you hear about that?” he managed at last.

“Well, I could just say ‘It’s the Quarter,’ which it is.” She gri

“Oh, that’s just great.” Griffen grimaced. “I was hoping the whole thing would just blow over. Instead, the word is spreading.”

“Hope for the best, but plan for the worst,” Mai recited smugly. “If it blows over, fine. You’d better be thinking about what you’re going to do or say, though, if it doesn’t.”

“What can I say?” Griffen said, shrugging helplessly. “I know Slim has a thing about abusing the power to control animals, but he really seems to have overreacted this time.”

“From what I hear, that was only part of it,” Mai said, sipping at her drink.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I don’t think you got the whole story when they gave you the recap,” Mai said, leaning forward and lowering her voice. “The animal-control thing is where it started, but it escalated into a pissing contest over whose powers were stronger and who could control who. Specifically, it really heated up when the question came up if you were powerful enough to control a vampire.”

Griffen covered his eyes, then massaged his forehead. “This just keeps getting better,” he said.

“You haven’t heard the best part,” Mai said with a grimace. “The real subject of conversation is what you’re going to do about it. It seems everyone is expecting you to come down on Slim.”

“What?”

“Well, he is one of the locals.” Mai shrugged. “And he not only got into it with a couple of the other attendees, he specifically defied and embarrassed you in front of witnesses. Some are thinking that you’re going to have him bounced from the conclave. Other are saying that, since you’re a dragon, you’re going to come down hard on him just to make an example of what could happen if anyone crosses you.”

Griffen slammed his glass down on the table.

“That tears it,” he growled. “What am I supposed to do now?”

“I really don’t know, lover,” Mai said with a sigh. “I just figured I should pass along the info you didn’t have. You’re in a tough enough spot without people holding back on you.”

Griffen favored her with a long stare.

“That sounds a little fu

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mai said, cocking her head to one side. “Has Val talked to you?”