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1. Don’t investigate leads alone.

2. A dragon slayer must be with you.

This was bad news because at the moment the only one of those not already otherwise occupied was Helen.

Just my luck.

But I went without hesitation. Anything to stay active so I didn’t lose my mind with the waiting.

This meant a lot of time spent with Helen, and of course, she still hated me.

I was past hating her. I more felt sorry for her but didn’t enjoy her company. It wasn’t nearly as much fun as the hate had been.

We drove. It was five hours but by the time all the arrangements were made with other transportation it just seemed easier to get on the road right away.

Helen wanted to take the wheel, but I took the first shift just to be contrary. “You can drive on the way back,” I told her.

She had a whole file with her, an actual physical copy, and she read through it to brief me on the way.

“So much wasted paperwork,” I remarked.

“Can you take this seriously?” she snapped at me.

“I am serious. Why’d you have to print it out? Don’t you have a phone?”

She fumed for a bit then went back to the briefing.

I couldn’t see Dom dating someone so totally without humor, someone who took themselves as seriously as she did. She was no fun at all. Then again, he probably hadn’t dated her, and I knew he hadn’t exactly been picky in the years I’d abandoned him. But it was hard not to think about it when I found it taxing to spend even a few hours with the woman.

I had a hand on the wheel, eyes steady on the road, and I didn’t know I was fussing with one of my earrings until Helen brought it to my attention.

“I’m surprised you let him track you like that,” she said, her tone poisonous.

I raised my brows. So she knew what the earrings were, and she was trying to get a rise out of me. Malicious teasing was almost like joking so I went with it. I was bored. “I see he didn’t bother to track you. Jealous?”

She didn’t take the bait, instead hung on to the topic as though she’d change how I felt about it if she just brought it up enough. “I thought you had more pride, more independence than to let him keep tabs on you.”

“You’re trying to imply I’m not an independent woman?” I asked with an eye roll. “How dare you,” I said, deadpan.

“I’d never put up with it.”

“He definitely didn’t ask you to,” I shot back. I could have told her why, the way I felt about all I’d done to him and how that made me put myself in his shoes and try to be more sensitive to his worries, but I’d be damned before I explained myself to her.

“It’s a useless gesture anyway. If you wanted you could just take the trackers off and leave them anywhere or even send them somewhere else.”

“Is there a point to this?” I asked her in a perfectly reasonable tone. “Or would you like to get back to business?”

“I just don’t understand you.”

“It’s mutual. I don’t understand why you don’t have a sense of humor or a personality. Was your slayer training so vigorous that you didn’t have time to develop one?”

“English slayers are efficient, or most of them are,” she sniffed and I knew she was alluding to Christian, and I wanted to slap her. “We don’t have time for frivolity like some people. There’s a reason our dragon kin have been extinct for centuries.”

I didn’t tell her that my kin had killed all of our slayers and a good portion of theirs. I didn’t have the stomach to even tease her about something like that when she’d still so freshly lost her brother.

Holding my tongue was a chore and a muscle I was learning to exercise just for Helen. Personal growth was good for the soul and all that.

“I’m sorry about your brother,” I said. I’d wanted to say it since it happened and now seemed as good a time as any.