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Mr. Skrinde really had underestimated us, and overestimated his own power.
Victor moved. The gun vanished from Shotgun Troll’s hands.
Zee poofed behind the trolls with guns and loomed, suddenly huge, with his wings open and tail lashing. “Boo!”
They whirled, guns up. But he poofed away, gone in a blink.
During Zee’s distraction, Victor dashed to Skrinde—stolen shotgun in hand—and wedged the gun’s barrel against the back of the troll’s head. Victor didn’t have to be dramatic, he could have broken Skrinde’s neck before anyone had seen him move, but this was a warning, made all the more clear when Zee poofed into the pool, grabbed the blow-up unicorn, and poised his tail to stab it.
The unicorn made painful, wet, rubber-on-rubber noises as Zee squelched up the pool steps, dripping wet but looking badass for it. “Nobody fuckin’ move or I blow the unicorn.”
I snicked my claws free and smiled at Skrinde, frozen in his chair. “Let’s negotiate.”
CHAPTER 13
“Let’s all be clear.” I got to my feet, giving myself some space from Skrinde. “That land you’re desperate to bully your way onto doesn’t belong to you. Hooper said no to your deal. Move on, leave them alone, or you won’t like where this ends.”
Skrinde flushed scarlet with rage. “You can’t touch me! I own this city and that swamp!” Now his true colors were coming out.
I spread my arms, gesturing at my two very capable partners. “Does it look as though we care what you think you own?”
Skrinde huffed, clearly furious. But he didn’t have much choice if he wanted to keep his head in one piece and on his shoulders.
“We’ve been nice up until now. You sent your son after us, then sent him again with guns. His death was an accident, by the way, that could have been avoided if you’d talked first. We’re actually nice people.” Admittedly, it didn’t look like it right now, with Victor holding a shotgun to the back of Skrinde’s head and Zee about to murder the unicorn. But Skrinde had driven us to this point.
“Nice? You’re all wanted for murder in multiple states!”
“Alleged,” I corrected. “Leave Hooper and his land alone or this will get much worse for you.”
“You think you’re going to just walk out of here?” A grin stretched across Skrinde’s face. “My house is a fortress. You’re surrounded.”
We were outnumbered, that was true. On the face of it, three against a whole bunch of people with guns looked like an easy win for Skrinde. But we’d faced much worse. “Again, I gotta warn you. Right now we’re being nice, but we can also be not nice, and everything you’ve got here, all this fancy land, the pool, that big ol’ shiny house. Poof . . . all gone. Just saying. We wouldn’t want any more misunderstandings.” My claws helped emphasise my point. That and the growl beneath my words.
“Then you really are just like he said . . .” Skrinde’s voice trembled. “A vicious, rampaging monster.”
My heart felt the words, even as I guarded my expression against them. I wasn’t like my brother. I wasn’t . . . But maybe in this instance, it wouldn’t hurt to be the bad guy? “You talked to him . . . My brother?”
“Not yet. But not everyone thinks you’re heroes. Plenty of folks don’t much like the idea of a dragon, a vampire, an’ a demon working together. He put the word out you’re on the run, that you’re dangerous.” Skrinde’s gaze settled on Zee. “You killed that innocent detective. That was cold, man.”
Zee’s tail flicked. He tried to keep the hurt off his face, like I did, but it was there. Zee blamed himself for the accident a few weeks ago, when Somers, a human detective he’d accidentally allured into being obsessed with him, had taken his own life right in front of Zee, even though it hadn’t been Zee’s fault. Somehow Skrinde knew to dig at that wound. My brother must have twisted the truth and leaked it online to make us look bad, probably with Jenny the loup-garou’s help.
A high-pitched whistle sounded, then gradually the pitch deepened—the unmistakable sound of air escaping from a tiny hole.
The unicorn deflated in Zee’s grip.
“Oops,” Zee snarled.
“An’ you, vampire.” Skrinde turned his attention to Victor, although he couldn’t see him standing behind him. “We all saw the news footage. You led the raid on an innocent religious ceremony, desecrated a vampire shrine, and lots of folks think you killed the vampire queen to bring down the monarchy and pitch yourself as the leader of the vampire council.”
Victor’s lashes fluttered, the only sign Skrinde’s words got to him, picking at that wound too. Victor hadn’t planned any of that, but it could easily be twisted to look that way. My brother again.
“And you . . .” Skrinde glared at me and spluttered a rich laugh, thick with derision. “Everyone knows dragons are the worst. This sweet innocent human act is bullshit. You’re a killing machine. Heroes of the City? Fuck no, you got everyone fooled. You’re the villains of this story.”
“Yeah, I’ve about heard enough from this dickface.” Zee flung the floppy unicorn down and stomped to my side. “Fuck you and fuck your fake news. We’re out of here. Kitten?”
These weren’t Skrinde’s words. They belonged to my brother, distributed by social media to damage us. Syros knew exactly how to turn the world against us.
“Kitten?”
