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The agents went for their guns, even though the wards would stop all of this from kicking off.
“Zee, no.” I thrust out a hand. “Don’t.”
“Adam? I . . .” His face fell. “What’s happening?”
“It’s over.”
Victor blasted through the stairwell doors, his hair a messy black flag and his face stricken. “Stop! I can stop this . . . The vampire council have sway. Just . . . I need time, just . . . Please, do not take Adam from us.”
This was exactly what I’d been trying to avoid. I shook my head and offered my wrists to the agent with the cuffs again. “Let’s get it over with.”
Victor ventured closer, moving slower, uncertain. “Adam, my dear?”
“Guys, please . . . It’s fine. Everything is fine, okay?” My little laugh came out strained. “You’ve got your own lives. I’ve fulfilled my prophecy. It’s over. This is how it ends.”
“I refuse to accept that.” Victor straightened. His top lip rippled in a snarl.
“Yeah, what he said,” Zee agreed, joining Victor at his side. “Nobody takes our kitten against his will.”
“I signed off on this,” I told them. The cuffs clicked home, underlining my acceptance.
“Adam, why?” This came from Victor, and the depth of feeling behind it had me briefly doubting my decision. Maybe we should have escaped in the Love Wagon—or whatever vehicle we could find—and gone on a countrywide people-eating spree. But it wouldn’t change anything. I’d still be a dragon and too dangerous to let roam free.
“I love you guys.”
Zee staggered, and slumped against the front desk, as though my love had wounded him. He turned his face away, eyes squeezed closed. Victor reached out to him and rested a hand on his shoulder. And that’s how I knew they were going to be okay.
I nodded at the agent. “Alright, let’s go.”
“Wait!” A voice sounded outside. “Wait! Halt!” Agent Leomaris burst into the hotel with a dramatic flair of their long coat. Striding over, they flashed a badge, dropped a black tote bag by their feet, and panted, “SSD Agent Elion Leomaris on special command from the newly elected police commissioner.” They tore a document from inside their coat and handed it to the lead agent, making the man remove his helmet to read it.
“Adam.” Leomaris turned to me. “You have broken and flaunted multiple laws, are a suspect in several missing persons cases, the prime suspect in damage to public property, and a slew of other crimes that are frankly, too long to list.”
I winced. “I did do all of that, yeah.”
“And in any normal circumstance, you’d be incarcerated and relocated to a Lost Ones holding facility, but it appears as though we have a situation. Several tears have begun to open in the veil, and with the situation becoming volatile, the police commissioner has created a new position among the SSD to help counteract this potential threat to peace.”
“That’s a whole lot of fuckin’ words when all I wanna hear is that Adam’s free,” Zee said. “And who your tailor is.”
“Adam, this is for you.” Elion handed me a shiny piece of card with my name and a very official looking stamp on it.
My cuffs rattled as I took it. “What is it?”
“A certificate.”
“A . . . what?”
“A certificate of appreciation for your helping to subdue the threat from the dark sorcerer, Gideon Cain,” Leomaris elaborated.
“A fuckin’ certificate?” Zee growled. “We saved the world and we get a certificate, and Adam goes to jail? You know this is bullshit, right?”
Elion half shrugged. “Whether the entire world was at risk remains up for debate.”
“Excuse moi.” Zee stomped over. “You think Cain would have stopped at San Francisco? You saw that great big hole he was opening in the sky, right?”
Leomaris stood firm under Zee’s intimidation. “Adam, please read the names on the certificate.”
“Alright, uh . . . Me, Victor, and Zodiac,” I read aloud.
