“She is incredibly wound up,” Dizzy said, standing at the island. His protruding belly flattened against it. “She did the right thing, leaving Reagan to that horrible fate, but—”
“Would you stop calling it a horrible fate?” Callie demanded, picking up a half-filled tumbler of whiskey from the far counter by the stove and finding a stool. “It only makes things worse.”
“Well?” he demanded, raising his voice. “You were there. It looked like a horrible fate. But we had to go, I was saying. Otherwise they would’ve killed us.”
“Ms. Bristol was exemplary in the Underworld,” Darius said. “I think what she needs is to stand on her own and assure herself that she can be a hero if she needs to be.”
“She tried today, but that weasel Garret at the MLE office got in her way. What’s going on with the Mages’ Guild?”
“That’s another thing.” Callie took a sip of her drink as Emery walked into the room. After spending years on the lam, hiding from the elves and the previous corrupt Mages’ Guild, Emery had learned to be the right kind of dangerous. He was also quite easy on the peepers.
He ran his hands through his wet hair, his graphic T-shirt smelling fresh and his sweats without a single spill. Clearly he was right out of the shower. He must’ve worked out earlier, or maybe done arduous spell working while Penny was being annoyed by Garret.
“She’s got far too much on her plate.” Callie got up and moved to the fridge. She took out a beer and handed it to Emery. “You do too, young man. Far too much on your plate. You can’t hope to head up the Mages’ Guild and be Reagan’s right hand. It’ll never work.”
“Where’s Penny?” Emery asked.
“Neighborhood watch with Veronica,” Dizzy answered.
Emery nodded and popped the top on his beer, his blue-eyed gaze coming my way. “How’d it go with the bounty hunter gig?”
I briefly explained, watching as a grin worked up Emery’s face. He loved Penny’s antics almost as much as I did. I also let them know about Roger.
“Penny thinks he’s manipulating me,” I finished.
Emery held up a finger. “You glossed over the merpeople part of that story.” He sat down at the island and leaned forward. “What happens when they’re in the water? I tried to find out once, and one of their males almost killed me.”
I held my breath.
“Really?” He squinted an eye at me. “You’re really not going to spill?”
“Oh my God, I want to. I really do. But I can’t.”
“Ask Cahal,” Darius said, his smooth, deep voice sending a shiver down my back. I leaned into his hard body. The guy could still get to me. All this time together, and it still felt fresh and new. Exciting. Or maybe I was just horny. Hard to say. “He doesn’t seem to have any qualms regarding spilling other creatures’ secrets.”
“Still mad about the unicorn slip, huh?” Cahal had given up the vampires’ secret means of creating new vampires to Roger, of all people, although he’d also revealed another interesting tidbit: new shifters could be made—not birthed—with the use of dragon blood. I grinned up at Darius. “Speaking of, what’s going on with them? We’re pretty sure Vlad’s going to try to bogart them, right?”
“The unicorns are their own creatures. They will choose what course they will take, though they are partial to Vlad. We will need to meet with their matriarch before long and plead our case. I have already spoken with her, but she has requested your attendance as well. If the elves are defeated, there is a question on where they might roam. Everyone has interests in the coming war, including the magical creatures.”
My heart leapt, my stomach flipped, and a stupid grin worked up my face. I hadn’t seen them since my first visit to their territory, back when I was helping Darius solve a case. They were the vampires’ best kept secret (until Cahal had blabbed, clearly not afraid of vampire retribution). I’d wanted to get back there for a long time, but it just hadn’t worked out.
“Totally,” I said, gushing.
“When we need to move the dragons, we’ll fly them to the unicorns’ land on the way to our destination. We might as well hit two birds with one rock.”
“Got that saying wrong, but what’s this now? Move the dragons?”
“I sure would like to see a dragon,” Dizzy said with glittering brown eyes. His smile lit up the room. “Imagine! I had no idea they even existed! Wouldn’t you like to ride a dragon, Callie?”
“Have you lost your mind? I’d fall off inside of a minute. You would, too. You’d forget what you were doing and slip right off.”
“How can you forget that you’re riding a dragon?” he replied.
“How can you forget that there is a flowerbed between your shed and the house? I don’t know, but you manage to trample through it at least twice a day.”