Fire Marked Read online

  Contents

  Synopsis

  Copyright

  Fire Marked

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  Fire Marked

  City of Dragons

  Book Four

  by Val St. Crowe

  Not only are rogue dragons real, they’re attacking my hotel. Every few days, there’s another one, terrorizing me, my unborn baby, my boyfriend Lachlan Flint, my friends, and my guests. I have to figure out what’s drawing them there and stop them from coming, if only because Clarke Gannon the dragon slayer keeps showing up, and I don’t much like her.

  Lachlan and I are dealing with a case involving stolen magical artifacts and a gargoyle matriarch who doesn’t have much faith in our skills.

  When the case and the attacking rogues converge one day, we run smack into Lachlan’s past. He used to work undercover for magical narcotics, and now the vampire gang he infiltrated might offer our only hope to stop the rogues and protect our child.

  But to do that, we’ll need to go undercover again, into the depths of the dangerous magical underworld.

  FIRE MARKED

  © copyright 2016 by Val St.Crowe

  http://vjchambers.com

  Punk Rawk Books

  Please do not copy or post this book in its entirety or in parts anywhere. You may, however, share the entire book with a friend by forwarding the entire file to them. (And I won’t get mad.)

  Fire Marked

  City of Dragons

  Book Four

  Val St. Crowe

  CHAPTER ONE

  I rolled onto my back and then onto my side again. Lying on my back was just starting to get uncomfortable. I was about midway through my pregnancy, and I had enough of a belly that it was taking up space.

  “Can’t get comfortable?” came the low rumble of my boyfriend Lachlan Flint’s voice in the darkness.

  I fluffed my pillow and yanked another one off the floor to put between my legs. “No.”

  “If we were at my place, you could use the full-body pillow,” he said.

  I rolled over to look at him, keeping the pillow between my legs. “Why don’t you just bring it here?”

  “Well, then you won’t have it when you sleep at my place,” he said.

  “I never sleep at your place,” I said.

  “You do,” he said. “I pay rent on that place, and we spend time there.”

  Lachlan’s apartment was pretty sparse when it came to things like furniture. It wasn’t exactly what I called comfortable.

  I snuggled into my pillow. “Maybe you should stop paying rent.”

  “That sounds like a very bad idea. I think I’d get evicted.”

  “No, I mean, maybe you should move out of that apartment and move in here.”

  Lachlan propped himself up on one elbow. “You want us to move in together?”

  “We’re having a baby together,” I said. “So, we probably should live together.” True, the baby was a vampire-dragon hybrid, and we had no idea how it had been conceived since Lachlan’s body was technically dead and only kept functioning by magic. And true, the baby seemed freakishly powerful, able to sort of communicate with us when Lachlan was drinking my blood. So, it was an unusual situation all around. But we were still having a baby, and I wanted Lachlan close.

  He leaned down and kissed my forehead. “You’re right. We should.”

  “So, you’ll move in?”

  He flopped back down onto his side of the bed. “Why don’t you move in with me?”

  “With you?” I said. “Your apartment has nothing.”

  “It’s got stuff,” he said, defensive. “Including body pillows. And besides, you could just bring your stuff over there, and then it would be fine.”

  “But I don’t want to move,” I said. “I like living here. Anyway, I’m living right in the hotel that I own, and it’s convenient. My morning commute is to just walk downstairs. If I live at your place, I’m going to have to drive here, and I won’t be available at all times to the hotel staff.”

  “Well, maybe that would be a good thing. After all, you’re just going to get more and more pregnant, and you won’t be able to do as much. You’ll need your rest.” He rubbed my belly. “And after the baby’s here, you’ll have even less time. Maybe it would be good for them not to have access to you.”

  I considered. “I don’t know. I really don’t want to move.”

  “Maybe I don’t want to move either.”

  I rolled onto my back again. “You practically live here anyway.”

  He pressed his body against mine, nuzzling my neck. “I don’t. I go home before work practically every day.”

  “Well, don’t.” I turned my head to face him, kissing him quickly. “Bring some clothes here at least. Then we could snuggle together longer in the mornings.”

  He kissed me back, quickly as well. “I could do that, I guess. But I still think you should move in with me.”

  I kissed him again, longer this time, pushing my tongue into his mouth.

  He groaned softly, his hands starting to move over my skin. “Penny, it’s late.”

  “We’re awake,” I said, my voice catching a bit as he explored my hips, my outer thighs.

  “But we should be asleep.” His own voice had grown deeper, looser. His fingers darted over the tops of my legs, to my inner thighs.

  I gasped. “You should definitely move in here, because it’s oceanfront.”

  He chuckled, his fingers teasing higher. “Too many tourists.”

  “It’s September. They’re mostly gone.” I ran my hand over his flat, hard stomach, moving lower, teasing him as well. “And I have a pool. In case I need to—” I broke off as his fingers found me, the sensitive place between my legs. “Shift,” I moaned. I was a dragon shifter, and I needed to shift in water, or else it would permanently damage my human form and I’d be stuck in dragon form forever.

  One of his hands rubbed me, the other pushed the t-shirt I was wearing up higher and higher, exposing my belly, my—

  Crash.

  Startled, we both sat up. The noise had been loud and close, coming from just outside the wall.

  “What was that?” I said.

  “Stay here,” said Lachlan, throwing aside the covers and getting out of bed.

  “Screw that,” I said, coming after him, pulling my nightshirt down. “I’m the one that can breathe fire here.”

  “Yes, and you never tire of reminding me of that,” he said. He shot a glance over his shoulder. “At least stay behind me. Put my body between the danger and your belly?”

  Low blow, bringing up the baby like that. But he was right. I would do whatever it took to protect our little guy, even
if it meant that I had to let Lachlan check out the crashing noises in the middle of the night. I stopped at the doorway. “Go ahead. I’ll stay here.”

  He turned to look at me and then kissed me. “Good.”

  I sighed.

  He kissed me again. “I’ll yell if I need you.”

  “You’re going to need me,” I said.

  Crash.

  The loud noise was followed by the sound of shattering glass, coming from the spare room.

  Lachlan darted across the hallway.

  “What is it?” I called, craning my neck.

  “Window broke in here,” he said. “There’s, um, there’s…”

  “What?” I said. I hurried into the other room.

  Through the open window, I could see a dragon. It was flapping its wings, hovering right next to the hotel. It threw itself against the building, clawing at the open window as if it was trying to get in.

  I could see its eyes—dark and empty and insane. Gazing into them was like gazing into an abyss.

  CHAPTER TWO

  I rushed out of the guest room and down the hallway. I threw open the door to my balcony and hurried outside.

  “Penny!” Lachlan yelled, coming after me.

  The dragon turned to look at me. It abandoned trying to get in the window and came toward me.

  I threw myself down the stairs off my balcony, running until I hit the sand.

  The dragon came after me, claws extended.

  I ran for the pool, which was behind my hotel.

  The dragon clawed at me, its talons inches from my shoulders.

  I turned and thrust magic at it, forcing it away from me, hurling it backwards into the air.

  It shrieked in frustration.

  I hurried to the gate to the pool, throwing the door open. I was going to jump in the water, shift, and then take this dragon on head to head. I would fight it and stop it from destroying my hotel.

  But then the dragon made another shrieking noise. This one in pain.

  I turned to see an arrow had pierced it through the eye. The dragon hurtled to the ground and thudded against the sand.

  I left off trying to get into the pool and ran over to the dead dragon.

  Lachlan was coming at the bottom of the balcony steps. He was wearing nothing but his boxer shorts, and he looked delicious in the moonlight. I was struck by the way the cold, blue light reflected against his bare chest and arms. I wanted to—

  “You still going to say this wasn’t a rogue?” said a voice.

  I tore my gaze away from my boyfriend to see Clarke Gannon approaching. She was a tough-looking girl who couldn’t have been older than twenty-four. She carried a bow and had a quiver of arrows on her back. She was a dragon slayer.

  When I had first met her, I hadn’t believed her claim that she only killed rogue dragons, ones that were apparently out of control, mad, and did nothing but attack innocent people. I was starting to realize that I was going to have to believe it, though, because these attacks were getting ridiculous.

  “How many is this?” she said. “Four?”

  “Three,” I said. “This is the third one.”

  “In a week,” she said.

  I rubbed my forehead. “It’s maybe a little weird. And I can’t think of why a dragon would attack me or my hotel. Plus, when I look in their eyes…”

  “You see it, right?” she said. “You see there’s nothing in there.”

  I didn’t say anything.

  Clarke looked me over, and then turned her gaze to Lachlan. She cleared her throat and looked down at the sand. “You two want to get dressed?”

  Lachlan scratched his stomach. “We’re dressed.”

  I elbowed him. Lachlan was attractive and he knew it. Sometimes, he sort of flaunted it, and it drove me nuts.

  He threw an arm over my shoulders and kissed my temple. “Okay, okay. Maybe you should invite the nice dragon slayer upstairs for drink.”

  I sighed. “Come on up, Clarke. We’ll talk. Lachlan will put on a shirt.”

  He chuckled.

  Clarke glanced at the dragon corpse, then over at us, and then up at my balcony. She took a deep breath. “All right.”

  We trooped upstairs.

  I made Clarke leave her bow and arrows outside on the balcony, which she didn’t seem to like, but she did it anyway.

  Within a few minutes, we were all in my living room, sitting on the couches, fully dressed. Lachlan and Clarke had tumblers of whiskey. I was drinking blood. A few weeks ago, I would have woken up sick to my stomach, but my morning sickness had mostly faded. Unfortunately, my craving for blood had only intensified. We didn’t know why I craved blood. We only knew it had something to do with the baby.

  “So, I don’t want any more excuses,” said Clarke. “You can’t honestly think that I’ve been killing intelligent, nonviolent people here.”

  I sighed. “Well, that’s what dragon slayers do.”

  “Not as many as you’d think do that,” she said. “I’m not denying there are sleaze bags out there, people who’d kill any dragon they see. There are plenty of people who think dragons have it coming. You guys are the one percent, you know. They think, ‘Kill the dragons, sell their bodies, get the money that they’re hoarding.’”

  “I’m not hoarding money,” I said, glaring at her.

  She shrugged. “You own a hotel. On the beach. How much did that cost?”

  I sipped at my blood. “Well, still, I’m not hoarding money.”

  “I’m not that kind of slayer,” she said. “And I’d say that the majority of slayers kill rogues.”

  “No way,” I said. “I grew up in the dragon community. Dragons disappear, and we never hear from them again, and no one finds their bodies, and we all know that a slayer got them. My own parents were killed by a slayer, and, trust me, they were not rogues.”

  Clarke toyed with her glass of whiskey. “I’m sorry,” she said. “About your parents. That’s awful.”

  “You don’t have to apologize,” I muttered.

  She tipped the tumbler back, gulping down the liquor. Then she set the glass down. “I lost my parents too. I know how tough that can be.”

  “Don’t,” I said. “Don’t try to find common ground between us. You are a slayer, and you hunt down my kind and kill them.”

  “I’m telling you, it’s not like that,” said Clarke. She turned to look at Lachlan. “You’re a cop, right? You understand that there aren’t nearly as many crazy psychos out there as the movies would have you believe, right? Regular people don’t just run around killing other people.”

  “They do if they’re desperate,” I said. “And your sister is a hot mess, right? I guess you need money to take care of her, so that’s why you do what you do.”

  “I don’t make money,” said Clarke. “I have a deal with a clean-up crew that comes in and takes care of the carcasses—”

  “Carcasses?” I shot out of my seat. “These are people.”

  “No,” she said. “They aren’t. Not anymore. Look, I don’t know what happens, but whatever is inside these dragons that’s human and decent and intelligent is gone. They don’t shift into human form. They are just dragons. And they aren’t even animals. They don’t mate or socialize or travel in groups. They just burn and burn and destroy and eat.”

  I drew in a shaky breath. And then I sat back down. I picked up my glass of blood and took a big drink.

  “Is that blood?” said Clarke.

  “I’m pregnant with a vampire-dragon hybrid,” I said. “It’s a long story.”

  “You’re pregnant?” said Clarke. “You must not be very far along.”

  “I have an enormous belly,” I said, smoothing my shirt over it.

  Clarke scrunched up her nose. “Not really.”

  Lachlan spoke up. “About the rogues? You really have no idea why they behave the way they do?”

  I pulled my feet up and tucked them under my body. “I used to have this theory about all the stories about dragons
from legends and stuff. You know, how the storybook dragons were always burning down cities and capturing fair maidens? I used to think that maybe it was because they shifted out of water.”

  “And their human form was destroyed,” said Clarke thoughtfully.

  “Wait a second,” said Lachlan, “I’ve always thought that simply meant that the physical form was destroyed, not the mental form.”

  “Me too,” I said. “I thought that dragons like that must have been frustrated, trapped in dragon form with no way to be human again. I thought they got mean over time. But what if…?”

  “What if it’s a true destruction?” said Lachlan. “What if there’s nothing left at all except an out-of-control beast?”

  “It’s a good theory,” said Clarke, “but it doesn’t make sense. You have no idea how many rogues there are out there. There’s simply no way that many dragons would shift out of water, not when they know the risks. No, it’s different. You know, sometimes I even wonder if these dragons ever were human. Maybe they’re some other species, something distantly related to what you are, but not the same.”

  “You said they don’t behave like animals,” I said.

  She shrugged. “In the end, it’s interesting to speculate on these kinds of things, but it makes no difference. Because there’s always another one coming somewhere, and it’s more important to stop the crazy beasts and save people’s lives than figure out where they came from.”

  Lachlan rubbed his temples. “There’s really that many? How can that be? I’m a police officer. I’m the magical creatures cop. If there were a bunch of dragon attacks in town, I would know.”

  Clarke sucked breath in through her nose. “Well, someone’s covering it up, obviously. It’s a network of people with money and power, ties to the highest forms of government.”

  “Oh, Jesus,” I said. “This conspiracy business again?”

  “Look, I’m not saying I know who it is or why they’re doing it. If you want crazy conspiracy theories, you should listen to what some of the other slayers have to say about that kind of thing. I’m just saying that I hear the calls on the police scanner, and when I get there, I take care of the dragon. And there’s never any word about it in any of the papers or on TV. I’ve talked to people who called in, terrified because a rogue was attacking their home. And afterward, they’ll swear to me that they have no idea what I’m talking about.”