Page 5
Zee snorted. “Our villain name needs work. Terrible Trio? Horrible Hoteliers? Ugh. Nope.”
“If we can call Leomaris, I’m sure they’ll get this all straightened out, right?” I asked them both, and received two blank faces in return. “Right?”
“We have been on the run for over a week,” Victor said. “We left without warning and no explanation.”
“On vacation,” Zee clarified, air-quoting.
“And it will not have escaped Agent Leomaris’s attention that the Heroes of the City are not in the city, or anywhere near it.” Victor began to pace, and the swish of the towel and sweep of his bare legs was admittedly distracting . . . “We are, in fact, on the other side of the country. Agent Leomaris is no fool. Our sudden absence will ring alarm bells.” He did look fine, all worked up, his muscles in motion . . . “Their reputation is also on the line. With us gone, into that information void steps Syros.” His wet hair dripped water down his fine back . . . “Who is also no fool. It is highly likely Leomaris has already spoken with Syros, and it is safe to assume your brother will use lies and manipulation to undermine our good standing with the SSD—Adam, are you listening?”
“What? Yes. No. Absolutely. Wait . . . I may have missed . . . some parts. What was all that again?”
Zee snickered, understanding the gutter my thoughts had dipped into. “He said we’re fucked.”
My heart began to sink. “Is it that bad?”
“Pfft, no. Agent Fae ain’t gonna believe some shady dragon claiming to be Adam’s brother,” Zee dismissed with a laugh . . . But the laugher trailed off.
“Adam himself spent many years disguised as a human. Dragons are—forgive me, my dear—manipulative by their nature.”
“It’s going to be alright,” I said firmly. “I’ll talk with Leomaris, straighten this out.”
“Breaking news,” the anchor on the TV said. “This just in. The vampire council has suspended Victor Reynard’s position after discovering some disturbing phone footage taken several months ago at the vampire queen’s royal estate.”
The screen then switched to grainy phone footage of someone who looked a lot like Victor holding someone else against a tree, their feet off the ground, clearly choking the life out of them.
“That could be anyone,” Zee snorted. “Snarly old vampires all look the same.”
A familiar voice from somewhere in the gloom said, “Hey, Fuck-Hard, get it done already, we got more suckers to slay.”
Zee blinked and nodded. “That could also be anyone with a beautiful, rich singing voice. Wow. I wish I had a voice like theirs. What a curse it must be for them, whoever they are, to go unrecognized in their vocal glory.”
“Believe me, demon, there is not a single soul on the planet who has ever called me Fuck-Hard, except you.”
Zee scratched at his smooth chin, trying to think up an excuse. “That is valid.”
“This was taken the night we decapitated the first vampire queen,” Victor said. “If any more footage is leaked, we will have more to worry about than a few bad news stories. The entire vampire race will assume we killed the queen.”
“Which we uhm . . . did,” I clarified. “We did that.”
“Uh, hello? It was a fuckin’ accident,” Zee added.
“I agree with Adam. We must borrow Toby’s phone as soon as possible and alert Agent Leomaris to everything that is happening.” Victor fixed his gaze on me. “Everything, Adam.”
“Alright. All of it. Okay.” It was time for the truth about our vacation to come out. “That’s assuming Toby is coming back.”
“Why wouldn’t he?” Zee asked, then saw me glance at Victor. “Oh fuck, what’s with the face? Have I missed something?” He rolled his eyes. “Is Toby a fuckin’ axe murderer who collects body parts, or a shape-shifting ice queen with relationship issues, or some other fuckin’ murdery thing that’s gonna try an’ kill us?”
“Erm . . .” I shrugged. “Probably not. But also . . . maybe?”
CHAPTER 3
One good thing to come out of the news was that if Syros was in San Francisco actively spreading bad news about us, then he wasn’t in Florida. We had some breathing space.
As the sun set, Victor—now regrettably wearing clothes—gathered some drinks from the minibar and we sat out on the dusk-lit deck, with the ocean stretched along the horizon and palms swaying on either side of the house. Stars sparkled in the great expanse of black above, interrupted by just a few sweeping clouds. Crickets chirped in nearby grasses. It truly was magical.
After telling Zee all about our Toby suspicions, and him agreeing it was peculiar, it didn’t change much. We still had to wait for Toby to show so we could borrow a phone.
I sipped my whiskey and watched Victor teaching Zee how to fold a piece of paper into a swan. Victor was back in his tired suit, and Zee had thrown on some kind of threadbare half top that showed his middle, and slim black pants. Getting Zee to sit still for any length of time was a miracle in itself, so he had to be really into the origami making. He dutifully folded each crease just like Victor beside him, but somehow, when they both produced their swans . . .
