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18
When the waiterat Bitterroot BBQ brought my tray of brisket, ribs, beans, and collard greens, I dug in with enthusiasm, wishing I could eat Dimitri’s share too. He sat across from me, looking cheerful and perky as he grabbed his cornbread. I couldn’t believe he’d slept through the entire dragon encounter, snoring in oblivion while I was getting my minddiddled.
I also couldn’t believe that, once I’d finally fallen asleep, I’d spent the night dreaming of riding a black dragon over the city, over the mountains, and across the Sound—and loving it. Laughing as we dipped and soared, looking down at a passenger ferry from high above and startling sea lions sunning themselves on a beach. Either my mind was messing with me or Zav had left the notion in there, along with the one of me eagerly doing his bidding. Maybe that was the reward he thought I would want, though I had a hard time imagining him deigning to let a mongrel ride on his back. More likely, my sleep-deprived brain had come up with the dream all byitself.
I shoved a rib in my mouth, gnawing on the bone far harder than pleasure would have demanded. At least my stomach was happy. We hadn’t eaten since driving back from Bend the day before, and I’d woken up at noon, ravenous and with no food in the apartment that hadn’t been thrown on the floor andtrampled.
“You all right?” Dimitriasked.
“I’m just trying to figure out how I’m going to collect everything I need to get when I don’t even know how to get down there.” The restaurant was busy with people eating at tables close to ours, so I refrained from mentioning dark elves and secret underground tunnels. “Did you really not wake up at any point last night when Zav was in myapartment?”
“Nope. I was passed out.” He’d woken up even later than Ihad.
I’d had to prod him off my couch with the promise offood.
“He really asked you to fetch some, uh, bad guys for him?” Dimitri glanced at one of the side tables where the couple was cheerfully chatting about their plans to visit the Chihuly Museum and go to a Mariners game. What must it be like to have such a normallife?
“Yes. I don’t get it.” I leaned closer and lowered my voice. “Couldn’t he smash through the building or street or whatever is on top of the tunnels and reach in and pluck them out? You didn’t see him on the rooftop. He’shuge.”
“Maybe he’s not supposed to destroy cities to do hisjob.”
“Even if that’s true—and I have a hard time imagining his justice court caring about lowly vermin cities—then why couldn’t he walk down there as a human and get them? Why send me? A puny littlemongrel.”
He lowered his voice. “I’m sure you know more about dragon shifters than Ido—”
“Notmuchmore. This is my firstone.”
Dimitri raised his eyebrows. Maybe I did have a problem withinterrupting.
“I wonder if he’s less powerful in that form and worries that an entire clan of dark elves—how many live down there?—might overpowerhim.”
“He incinerated bullets and froze me in my tracks while in human form. He froze Sindari, too, and he’s at least moderately resistant to magical attacks.” I didn’t want to contemplate the possibility that Zav was afraid to go down there, not when I had no choice but to goin.
“I saidlesspowerful, not awimp.”
“I don’t know.” I scraped collard greens onto my fork and shoveled them into my mouth while I considered. “He’s so arrogant that even if hewasless powerful, I think he’d still believe he could kick all of theirasses.”
“Maybe he’s just busy then. Long list of criminals tocatch.”
I snorted. “He does sound aggrieved by that. And pissed that it’s forcing him to visit our lowly world. Who gave him this task, do youthink?”
“Someone higher up on the totempole?”
“His mom?” My snort turned to a snigger as I imagined Lord Cocky getting taken by the ear—the horn—and being given the to-do list aspunishment.
Dimitri’s mouth twisted withskepticism.
“He did mention that female dragons are powerful and run the show. Maybe that’s why the males, embittered by their pitiful status in society, take their aggressions out on smallerspecies.”
“Maybe you can run that hypothesis by him next time he lands on your roof. If he kills you, at least you’ll die athome.”
“Flattened like those poor deck chairs.” I set down my fork as a new unpleasant thought surfaced. “What if he’s still pissed at me for interfering with his arrest of the wyvern, and he’s trying to get me killed? By giving me an impossibletask?”
“Couldn’t he have killed you last night in your apartment if he wanted youdead?”
“Or any of the times we’ve met, yes, but maybe that’s against the laws he’s upholding. I don’t think he killed any of the werewolves, though the ones that caught fire might have eventually died.” I grabbed another rib. “You know what I should have done? Told him he’d have to come with me down into that lair and that I’d help him get his dark elves, but only if he and his bullet-incinerating body stood in front of me while I hunted down thealchemist.”
The baseball couple glanced at me. Maybe I hadn’t lowered my voice enough. The waiter brought their check, which they hurried to pay without waiting for change and then hustled away from the table with a few backward glances towardme.
