Page 13

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?”

“Yeah, uhm... Yeah, let’s go.”

“Walk,” Victor said, using his voice to add extra oomph to the command. Skrinde jolted into motion, his movements wooden.

Skrinde’s people followed our every step, back through the palatial house, then out the front to the fountain. Zee hopped into one of the pickups and started the engine. “Climb in,” he told me.

I slashed the tires on the other trucks, then hopped in beside Zee, catching his comforting smile and matching it with my own. We were going to be okay.

Victor whispered something into Skrinde’s ear, and whatever he said, it froze the drug lord in place. He slipped Skrinde’s phone from his pocket, then handed the shotgun to me through the truck’s open window. “I’ll deal with the guard at the gate.”

Victor vanished, racing to clear our exit route.

Skrinde glared. His armed guards glanced at each other, unsure what to do without orders. Did they shoot us and risk a war?

“This ends here,” I told them all. “If you come after us, you’ll die. Don’t make the same mistake countless dead have made before you.”

Zee spun the truck away from the house, kicking up arcs of gravel from the tires, and by the time we’d made it to the guardhouse by the open gateway, the guard was gone.

Victor hopped into the seat behind mine.

Had we just bluffed our way into scaring a drug lord, saved Hooper and his friends, and gotten a phone to call Leomaris on? “We are so badass,” I laughed, surprised any of that had worked.

“Fuckin’ right we are!” Zee laughed too. “He was quivering in those tiny budgie smugglers.”

“Adam.” Victor handed me the phone. “You must connect with Agent Leomaris. Mr. Skrinde’s words made it crystal clear your brother’s tactics are taking root against us. We are out of time and must come out of hiding to defend ourselves.”

“Oh right, yeah.” I took the phone—no locking passcode because Skrinde was an overconfident fool—and dialed Leomaris again, then gazed out the window as the ringtone chirped in my ear.

Zee side-eyed me, then Victor. “You don’t think anyone else believes all that stuff about us being the bad guys, do you?”

“No...” I said. “Probably not...” I shifted in the seat. “Maybe?”

“Humans especially, but Lost Ones also, like nothing more than to tear heroes down,” Victor grumbled from the back.

“Yeah. Internet mobs and witchhunts are not fun. I should probably check my socials—oh wait, I can’t, because someone threw my phone in a pool.”

“An impulsive mistake, I admit.”

Skrinde’s phone still chirped in my ear, calling for Leomaris to pick up. Maybe they didn’t answer numbers they didn’t recognize? Or maybe my brother had already gotten to them?

“Leomaris wouldn’t believe it though, right?” Zee asked. “They know we’re the good guys.”

“They did put their career on the line for us.” What if Leomaris’s bosses had withdrawn our hero status? What if Leomaris had been reprimanded because we’d left San Francisco and a trail of bodies behind?

“Agent Leomaris speaking. Who is this?”

I’d never been so relieved to hear Leomaris’s slow, melodic drawl. But also, I was apprehensive. They were on our side, right? “Uh, hey, it’s uhm... it’s Adam... Adam Vex?”

“Adam? Where are you?”

“Oh uh...” The scenery outside the truck had gone from built-up city to a few scattered houses with massive yards. “Somewhere outside Miami.”

“Miami? You really could not have run farther away without leaving the country.”

“Run? What?” I half laughed. “We’re not on the run, we just... needed some space.”

“If you’re calling to tell me there’s an imposter in your hotel, I am well aware. With no means of contacting you, I’ve been monitoring the situation in the hope you would, at some point, call in.”

“Yeah, so, about that uhm... how did you know he’s not me?”

“From the simple fact Victor and Zodiac are not here. The imposter claimed they were still touring the US, but knowing you as I do, I found that version of events highly unlikely.”

At least I didn’t have to convince them the fake Adam was fake. “I guess I need to start at the beginning. So... I uh, have a brother.”

“We’ve met.” Leomaris did not sound pleased. “Some warning would have been appropriate, don’t you think? Regardless, you must return to San Francisco immediately. Your absence is making your situation indefensible.”

We did have to go back. The moment was coming. But I just needed a day or two. Just a little more time... “Is everyone okay? Is the hotel okay?”

“Tom Collins appears to have everything running smoothly. Where are you? I’ll send a team to escort you home.”

I swallowed, and checked Zee’s concerned face, then Victor’s. I trusted Leomaris, I did. But also... someone—probably the loup-garou Gen Z Jenny—was at the hotel, impersonating me. What if this wasn’t Leomaris at all? What if I was speaking with Jenny? She could have overpowered Leomaris and taken their phone, especially if she’d looked like me at the time.

“Uhm, so this is going to sound weird, but how do I know this is you?” I asked.

“Who else would it be?”

“It’s just, that imposter? She’s real good at lying. And she probably really, really doesn’t like me much.”

“And why is that?”

This wasn’t a conversation to be had over the phone. And right now, it wasn’t the most important thing that was happening. Only Leomaris could send an SSD team to collect us, right? Although Jenny could pretend to be them and order a team... Oh dear, I had to trust them. I didn’t have a choice if I wanted to clear this whole mess up. We needed Leomaris.

“Alright, I guess. We’ll be at The Peach Pit in Miami South Beach in uhm...”

“Tomorrow at six a.m., Miami time,” Victor said, giving us the rest of the night to plan ahead.

“I will send a team in. Adam... be careful.”

“We will. And uh... you too.” I hung up and frowned at the phone. None of this felt right, but it had to happen. I’d been running for a very, very long time. From before buying the hotel with Zee, before I’d changed my name and my life to become Adam Vex.

It was time for Mydros to stop running, time for me to finally face the consequences of my actions.. . and my brother.