2. Pick a property, any property.

TWO

Pick a property, any property.

Tuesday, May 1, 2057

North Lake Memorial Park and Cemetery, Precinct 153

Cauldron City, Nebraska.

It took me an hour to convince the captain to set me loose with Miranda, as he loathed the idea of sending a raw recruit outside of the station. After several reminders she worked to earn a place in the force, which she couldn’t do while under lock and key, Captain Farthan grudgingly approved, authorizing us to return our gear in the morning.

As I wanted to avoid drawing attention, I changed out of my uniform, opting against taking anything beyond my badge, my shoulder holster and gun, and my leather coat, which did an admirable job of hiding my firearm.

While puzzled, my new partner dressed in a baggy shirt with long sleeves and a looser pair of jeans .

People might look at us funny for our attire—at least until the next storm swept in, which was due to arrive at sunset.

Miranda took me on a tour of the immaculate lawns and gardens of North Lake Memorial Park and Cemetery, taking the time to point out interesting little tidbits of my city’s history—history I hadn’t known. The first few graves she directed me to stole my breath.

Someone had exhumed the bodies of ancient dragons, interring their bones beneath the soil while waiting for the necropolis to be complete—if it ever was completed. She even knew their names, when they had died, and why those below wanted their bodies.

One of the groups, Mercy, wanted to test if dragon bones might heal humans, but only humans of the magical bent. That sent me for a loop for more reasons than one. At the small, unassuming headstone of one such red dragon, I asked, “Do you know why?”

“I think someone near the top of Mercy lost someone who needed an organ transplant. Well, I guess more than a few have; they’re utterly obsessed with organ transplants, and they’ll do anything necessary to get their hands on viable organs of the right type. Anyone with a scrap of sense avoids that lot, especially among the other groups. The other groups run black markets, and organs show up from time to time if the price is right. I think it’s the primary drug market that wants me out. They need a lot of money to establish their operations. They want to be dealing drugs, but they can’t afford the drugs, so they want to steal goods to buy their narcotics. I was approached, but I refused. That’s when the attacks started. ”

In her shoes, I would believe the same. “And this drug market conflicts with this Mercy group?”

“They do. Mercy wants to push that market out; they came up with the idea of drugging people so they could blame their rival.” Miranda snorted. “They retaliated, taking some of Mercy’s victims out of stasis storage and setting them up around the city to draw attention to Mercy’s activities.”

Well, that tidbit of info meant exactly none of us had gotten the base motivations correct for why someone might set up so much dead weight. Her intel meant we’d have to return to the drawing board, trying to identify why Mercy had selected so many victims, how the drug cartel factored into the situation, and what other missing pieces lurked in the shadows. “The cartel’s thought on the dragon bones?”

“They want nothing to do with it. Other drug gangs screwed around with those bones, and it led to their ruin. Once the dragons find out someone is snorting the bones of their ancestors or quaffing them for medicinal purposes, they lose their minds. I might not have met many dragons, and I might just be a shapeshifter, but even I know that. Dragons take their kin, dead and alive, seriously. But it makes sense. Nobody wants some stranger eating the bodies of their loved ones.”

Quaffing? I suspected the woman had been teaching herself, possibly using books or games, for a word like quaff to enter her vocabulary. The rest of her commentary served as a brutal reminder of reality. If someone tried to eat the bones of a black dragon, every black dragon in the city would rise up, hunt the culprit, and leave nothing but bone splinters and blood smears in their wake. “Knowing more than a few dragons, I’m inclined to agree with you. Why haven’t they stolen the bones already?”

“They’re warded, much like that unicorn’s house.”

Once she showed me how to pull off one hell of a heist, I would need to warn the dragons about the groups, their desire for the bones, and that there were those with knowledge of the wards and a willingness to break through them. I would be ready to dive for cover, as angry dragons tended to forget about the fragile things, including people, around them.

I valued my friendship with the various dragons of Cauldron City, but I also enjoyed living.

“That’s good intel. Thank you. What’s the safest way for you to show me this trick?”

“Pick a property, any property. If it’s warded, I’ll tell you. If it belongs to someone we shouldn’t mess with, I’ll tell you. If it appears to be safe, we’ll make a hit, take a few things, and return them afterwards.”

I smiled. “Our target is Captain Farthan’s left shoes. All of his left shoes. We will also steal his favorite hat.”

Miranda’s eyes widened, and she blinked at me. “You want to steal his left shoes?”

“Yes, I wish to steal his left shoes. He always thinks he’s right.”

Snorting a laugh, she checked the screen of her phone, which was new. She scowled, tapping at the screen with the hesitancy of someone unaccustomed to such a device. “I’m supposed to have a schedule on here somewhere.”

Well, in good news for her, I was up for the game of teaching her how to use her phone and our calendar system. Coming over to her side, I pointed at the icon that would load our schedule. “If you want to see when the captain is in the station, you can select his name from the staff menu. You should have access to that data.”

She tapped where told, and once his information came up, she considered the intel through narrowed eyes. “This would be very bad if it were to land in the wrong hands, wouldn’t it?”

“The captain is a dragon, Miranda. He can defend himself well enough. He’s single, fairly grouchy, and full of himself. We could waltz around his house in the middle of the night as long as your trick puts us directly inside. His alarm system monitors the outside and entry points, not the interior. He is a proud dragon, views himself as handsome, and wouldn’t want to hurt the feelings of any security staff monitoring his home with his physique.”

While everyone in our precinct understood the truth, that he was a prideful dragon, we let him get away with his commentary. For the most part, his posturing amused us.

Knocking him down a peg would be one of my favorite memories in the future.

“We would enter directly into the home,” she confirmed before holding out her phone. “Can you make this thing show me a map of where he lives?”

I did as she asked, inputting the captain’s address into her phone before handing it back to her.

“Okay. This is easy. His house is along one of the major maintenance tunnels.” After some trial and error, she figured out how to zoom the map out before she pointed at one of the precinct’s main streets, a stone’s throw from the captain’s house. “There is a major tunnel that follows this street, and there are little tunnels that branch out from there. The captain’s house is alongside one of those tunnels.” She pointed at the house. “That part of the house is directly above the tunnel system, which makes it trivial to access. The only thing we have to worry about is whether or not we pop up under a piece of furniture or his bed, but I have ways of opening peep holes to check.”

“His bedroom is on the second floor, and he has a lot of soundproofing installed because of the major street,” I informed her.

“Well, that’ll make this easy. As long as he keeps his shoes on the first floor and inside the house.”

I tried to remember the few times I’d been to the captain’s house. “I’m pretty sure he does. He has a mud room. He likes to keep the interior of his house spotless—and he owns a lot of house slippers.”

“We better make off with the slippers.”

Fortunately for me, I’d see enough of the captain’s habits to understand he kept his slippers in the hall near his bedroom as his bedroom was the only place he went anywhere barefooted. Grinning, I said, “You’re absolutely right. We should leave him with just one slipper. Just one, that way he can’t try to mix and match his pairs. Slippers don’t really have right or left feet, so the only solution to this problem is to take all but one slipper.”

“Why are we doing this?” She eyed me, raising a brow. “This sounds more like you just want to pull a prank on the captain.”

“Pulling pranks on the captain is one of our few joys in life, Cadet Miranda. Not only are we pulling a prank on the captain, we are doing it in such a way he will be forced to praise us for giving him a demonstration of how the thefts have been happening. That means we can get to work warding the tunnels against people using them again in the future.” I rubbed my hands together before retrieving my phone, checking the schedule, and determining the captain would be in bed no later than ten so he could be at the station by six in the morning. “Where are you staying?”

“The judge arranged for a rental a few blocks away from the station.” With a little help from me, she showed me one of the apartment complexes near the station. “Part of my wages is the rent. The judge wants me to get used to working and having money of my own before adding rent as a responsibility. He wants to give me the best chance at success. He has someone who needs to do community service helping me adapt to a legal lifestyle.”

Using my phone, I showed her where I lived, which was closer to the captain’s home than it was to the station. “If you don’t have any objections, we can camp out at my place before we make our hit. I have a house, but it’s a small one. I do have a guest bedroom.”

“I can check to see if it’s easy to hit, and if it is, maybe you can talk to one of your dragon friends?”

I appreciated her concern, and I nodded. “I’ll talk to the dragons Jace bought his house from. I’ve met them, and they gave me their number so I can call if there’s anything amiss.” That had come as a surprise, as the dragons had visited the station while Jace had been exploring his new home with his live-in dragoness. “They owned the best warded property before selling it to Jace, so maybe they can help. ”

“Can you call them now?” Miranda gestured at the sky. “Before it’s dark.”

I suspected something had happened during the night to rattle the woman, and the last thing I needed was some form of trauma surfacing its head. In good news for everyone, Captain Farthan believed in therapy for his cops, no matter what their position was in the force.

She would be cared for—and I’d grease the wheels to make certain she got the treatments she needed sooner than later.

To appease her, I thumbed through my contacts until I located the entry for Lance, a blue dragon most liked. I pressed to connect the call and held the phone to my ear.

“Detective Lovell, what a pleasant surprise,” Lance answered. “How can I serve?”

“I had a question about your home. Specifically, I wanted to know who had done the warding work on the place.”

“I did,” the dragon replied with pride in his voice. “Why are you asking?”

“We’re investigating a string of thefts throughout the city, and it came to our attention that the home you sold to Jace is the best warded. A cadet and I were wondering if you could come to my house and help us with an experiment.”

“I’m still in town, so sure. I’m free. Rubella is available, too. Rubella helps by making the wards permanent. What time do you want us?”

If I packed Miranda into my cruiser, I could have us to my house within twenty minutes. One day, I’d get a car of my own, but for as long as the station kept issuing detectives cruisers, I’d save the money for a rainy day—and for helping my family get by. “I can be home in twenty minutes. ”

“We can wing our way there in twenty minutes.” After a moment, Lance told me my address. “Is that the place?”

“Yep, that’s it. I’ll be driving my cruiser.”

“Do you detectives even own cars that are yours? I have yet to meet a detective who drives their own car.”

I chuckled at the amusement in the blue dragon’s voice. “I just haven’t met a car that has made me want to deal with car payments yet. One day I might.”

“That’s disgustingly practical. We’ll see you soon,” Lance stated before hanging up.

“Well, we’re going to see the wards firsthand. Lance and Rubella are coming to my house, so I guess we’ll see if my house is a good target and if they can ward it from the sewer system. And if it is, perhaps you should make use of my guest bedroom, especially if those after you know about the sewer systems and might be able to access the apartment complex.”

She paled. “I hadn’t thought of that. But yes, they could. I’m on the top floor, though.”

“And once inside, that’s a problem a staircase or elevator can solve for the likes of these crooks.” While inviting her into my home hadn’t been part of any plans, if my place was warded and the complex wasn’t, I’d have a better chance of keeping her safe while she helped us get to the bottom of the thefts—and quite possibly the dead weight case. “We can talk to Lance and Rubella about what would be involved with warding your apartment complex.”

“Do you think they’ll find out where I’m staying?”

I winced before replying, “I would count on it. Cauldron City has a lot of good people in law enforcement, but we stink at witness protection. When your witnesses are usually dragons, the program does little to no good for the more regular folk, including shapeshifters and magickers.”

“Mercy wants to eliminate learned shapeshifters and magickers—at least the weak ones. They value strong magic.”

“I might not look like much, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve. Since you’re showing me yours, I’ll show you mine—once the dragons are on their way home, of course.”

“Of course.” She hit the button to kill the screen on her phone before returning it to her purse. “Do you think you have strong enough magic to handle this lot?”

“I don’t think so. I know so. I don’t show my tricks often, but if I must, I can handle even a dragon.”

Would we both walk away from the dispute? That I didn’t know—nor did I wish to find out.

“Then you should be all right.” Her expression told me the truth: the woman worried.

“Hopefully, we won’t have to worry about that, but should we? I’ll be ready.”

Tuesday, May 1, 2057

North Lake Education District, Precinct 153

Cauldron City, Nebraska.

Some days, I regretted living near the precinct’s schools. Noise, noise, and more noise plagued me whenever I was home, doing a good job of reminding me why I enjoyed spending time at work. As a silver lining in my stormy clouds, most households managed to contain their children by ten, giving me a chance to get some sleep most nights.

I needed to steal a page out of the captain’s book and soundproof my home.

On the outside, I appeared to have my life in order, having a white picket fence, a lawn consisting of clover and other flora rather than grass, and a few roses flanking my door and decorating the front. I loved my clover. Every spring, it brought bunnies to my doorstep, and I enjoyed watching them from my porch swing.

“It’s so nice,” Miranda breathed with wide eyes. “It’s small, but it’s the nicest one on the row.”

I smiled at that. “It was a shack when I bought it. I tore it down and rebuilt it large enough to be suitable for a couple and two kids. That’s our community’s regular demographic, so if I do sell, I should be able to attract buyers. I probably won’t sell, though. I’m not too far from work, and I have a place to park a vehicle.” I patted my cruiser’s dashboard, which occupied the sole parking spot that wasn’t on the street. “There used to be a shed there, but I wanted a place to park more than I wanted extra storage.”

“I like the lawn. It’s not grass.”

“It’s clover. I like giving little animals a place to live, and I don’t have to mow it often. When the clover blooms, it’s pink and purple, and it covers my entire lawn, so nobody complains during the spring. The clovers just finished blooming, and they’ll probably flower again in a few weeks. I do mow after every bloom just to encourage them to bloom again before summer comes and goes.” I got out of my cruiser, went around the vehicle, and held open the door for Miranda .

Judging from her wince, she’d had more than a few rough days before her court appearance and ‘punishment’ to join the force. I worried she’d endured a beating or two while on the streets, something that happened with alarming regularity.

I’d gotten into a few rough scrapes doing my job, and it sometimes took weeks for the bruises to fade along with the aches and pains.

Addressing her safety would be my top priority, and I suspected she’d be staying at my home until I could secure the apartment complex the court had arranged for her.

Having lived in an apartment before, I doubted the security would ever meet my basic requirements.

As I expected it would be a few more minutes before the dragons arrived, I unlocked my door, disabled my alarm system, and gave Miranda a tour of the place. She gasped at my kitchen, the only modern element of my home. As time was precious and I liked cooking, I’d dedicated extra space to the kitchen, opting to have my dining table in the same room rather than having it separated. I’d gone with a smaller table suitable for four, which allowed me to have guests if I wanted while still being able to move around. My split dishwasher could handle a load in thirty minutes flat on both top and bottom, and I tended to run it early and often to keep everything pristine.

As I viewed myself as a spoiled brat when it came to coffee, I owned an espresso maker, burr grinder, and coffee roaster, buying raw beans and making them precisely as I liked it.

I used some of my tricks to preserve my grinds so I could prepare a batch weeks in advance without sacrificing quality .

Miranda locked on to my espresso maker, and she admired it, keeping her hands clasped in front of her so she wouldn’t fall prey to temptation and touch it.

As my mother hadn’t raised a fool, I identified what the woman wanted, and it was some coffee. “Might I make you a cup?”

Her eyes widened, and she stared at me. “Really?”

“Sure. I even have a drip coffee maker and a French press if you’d prefer that over espresso. If you don’t want to have to choose, I can do all three. I’ll have a pair of dragons over, and little appeases dragons better than coffee.” To help make it clear I didn’t mind in the slightest, I pulled out my various contraptions to make her a proper offering of brew. “And if you don’t know if you like them, we’ll find out.”

“I’ve never had espresso before.”

“Then we shall do a coffee tasting to find out what you like.” I dug out a pair of travel mugs from below my sink, plunked them onto the counter, and grinned. “We’ll want coffee for the road, too.”

As I had an attentive audience, I explained what I was doing and why, showed her how I made the beans, and even gave her a demonstration of one of my magicker tricks in the form of forcing the air out of the bag and preserving my grinds once I finished measuring out how much I’d need to give four of us a hearty sampling of coffee. I’d finished making her espresso when a knock at the door announced the arrival of the dragons. I left Miranda to enjoy her drink long enough to welcome Lance and Rubella in and guide them to the kitchen.

The pair had come in casual clothes, choosing jeans and t-shirts as their apparel of choice, which did a good job of helping my new partner relax.

“I see you are working magic with coffee again,” Lance commented.

As I had the espresso machine primed and ready to go, I made them a shot before handing over the little cups. “Miranda hasn’t had espresso before.”

“I see. You have stepped into your happy place, and you will be loath to leave it for a while.”

I grinned at the blue dragon. “That’s about right. I do my best to tolerate the station coffee, but it’s a battle.” After making certain the drip maker and French press were working their magic on my grinds, I introduced everyone.

Miranda took a cautious sip of her espresso. “This tastes nothing like the station coffee,” she blurted, and her eyes widened. “There’s no sugar or cream in here, and it’s not really bitter?”

“I use Arabica beans. Most everyone in the station goes for Robusta. Robusta is cheaper and will peel paint off a wall, which is what most of the cops need while working. It keeps us awake.” I crossed my eyes at the thought of the station’s evil and dark brew. “It also deadens our sense of taste and leads to dark places. I’ve thought about getting a larger travel mug so I last longer before having to deal with the station coffee.”

“I can’t blame you for that. This actually tastes good . The coffee at the station needed a lot of sugar and cream to be bearable.”

Well, I suspected I wouldn’t have a problem convincing Miranda to make use of my guest bedroom while handling the issue of her safety. An offer of fresh coffee daily might work. That I was pulling one of Jace’s tricks would result in some ribbing from the rest of the station, assuming the bastards found out.

Making certain they didn’t find out rose to a rather high priority. “I’m glad you like it. So, here’s the deal, Lance. Miranda is at risk because of what she knows. There are squatters in the necropolis, and they’re after the dragon bones among other things. I need my home warded so I can prevent anyone from accessing the place—and her. I’ll be suggesting Miranda stay with me until further notice. If you can ward my home, there’s a solid chance they won’t be able to reach her. The wards on the house you sold to Jace are holding despite their efforts to bust in.”

Both dragons growled.

Miranda’s eyes widened further, and her entire body tensed.

“It’s all right,” I assured the woman, taking care to be gentle when patting her shoulder. “They’re crabby dragons who get upset over such things. You aren’t at fault for what the squatters are doing. If anything, they’re going to want to thank you for the information about the assholes after the dragon bones.”

“Lovell is correct,” the blue dragon confirmed, and he heaved a sigh. “If you need the same level of warding, we can provide it. This place is small enough it won’t take but a few minutes to do. I need a good reason to lounge about for a day or three. How about you, love?”

“I appreciate a good challenge. I’ll make Grant get us chicken from the good place for taking care of one of his baby cops. And once we’re done establishing the wards here, I think we’ll pay that sweet unicorn a visit and add a few extra nasty surprises to those who try to access the property from underground.” Rubella giggled and rubbed her hands together. “The tip off about the dragon bones is worth the work as well. We’ve been looking for a good reason to get involved—and messing with the bones of our ancestors is an excellent reason to get involved. Do you know who, specifically, wants our bones?”

Miranda gulped. “Mercy. They’re the ones who have been killing people for their organs. They want to test if the bones can help properly magical humans recover from illnesses. Another group has been planting the bodies they’ve been experimenting with on the surface, trying to bring Mercy down. Mercy has killed a few of the wrong people, and everyone else is angry. But Mercy is the group that’s causing the problems. Mercy wants to bring down a drug cartel in the necropolis. That’s why they’re testing poisons and drugs on people. The cartel is one of the groups stealing the test subjects and unwilling organ donors and planting them where the cops can find them.”

Both dragons stared at the cadet, blinking as they processed her words.

“Lovell,” Lance murmured, capturing my attention.

“Yes?”

“Do you have any idea what she is?”

“A shapeshifter as far as I know.”

The blue dragon sighed. “While that is true, that’s not what I meant. She’s one of your kingpins. She knows the motives, she has the knowledge, and if I’m not mistaken, she knows at least one of the methods.”

I nodded my agreement with his evaluation of the situation. “Yes, that’s accurate. Cauldron City also has a horrible witness protection program. Law enforcement here can’t safeguard her.”

“Warding your home might not be enough.”

“I know, but something is better than nothing. Until further notice, she’s my partner, and I have a few tricks up my sleeve I can use to keep her safe.”

“Magickers like yourself often do. We’ll place the wards and ask the other dragon clans to keep an eye on you two. That might be enough. If there are dragons haunting your steps, perhaps these groups will keep their distance. It won’t prevent some forms of assault, however. Gunfire will be a concern. However, if you allow it, we have a warding solution for that as well.”

I eyed the blue dragon with interest. “What do you mean by a warding solution?”

“I can imbue your flesh with a ward of sorts. Rather than prevent someone from shooting you, it will force them to shoot you in a safe location. It’s essentially a magnet for firearms. I will put one such magnet on both of you, although I will have the stronger ward on you, Lovell. You would handle being shot far better than you would handle her being shot.”

I shrugged, unable to deny the truth. “That’s a reasonable assessment of the situation. How long will these magnets last?”

“Two months, and then I will have to renew them.” Lance pointed at my left arm. “Being shot there will not take you out of commission for long, and it is easy enough to treat in the field. Make sure your cruiser has a field kit.”

“I always take a field kit with me, especially with the poisonings cropping up.” The field kit couldn’t do much about the poisonings, but I carried a tourniquet just in case I got to someone fast enough and could stop blood flow from the poisoning site to the rest of the body. Thus far, I’d had one success, although I’d given the doctors a great deal of work saving the victim’s lower leg.

Dr. Erik had made one thing clear: it was better the leg than the life, and had that toxin metabolized, they wouldn’t have been able to save the life. Ultimately, the black unicorn had been able to save the leg and the life.

I really hoped nobody told Jace about the tourniquets a lot of us were carrying around and our willingness to sacrifice limbs to save lives. The white unicorn would not handle it well.

To distract myself from that problem, I said, “Miranda shoots with her left hand, so her right arm would be the better choice, assuming she’s okay with this.”

“Being shot in the right arm beats being shot in the head,” she replied, although she wrinkled her nose. “I would rather not be shot at all, but if I have to take a round, I’d rather take one there.”

Rubella made a sound rather like a purr. “You are such sensible people. I like sensible people. Lance, I’ll start setting the foundation workings for permanency while you go over the property and find the weak points.”

Miranda pointed at the floor. “There’s a sewer maintenance tunnel right below the house. That’s how they’d access the place.”

“I love when fools make it easy on us.”

Both dragons grinned, and in their expressions, I spotted the promise of violence and retribution. While warning the dragons about the bones had been necessary, I worried I’d unleashed some form of disaster. How the disaster would manifest remained a mystery, one I didn’t want to solve.

If I played dumb, would Captain Farthan believe I had nothing to do with the involvement of more dragons in our cases? Dragons like Lance would play the game. Rubella might talk just for the joy of creating trouble.

Green dragons loved trouble. When they weren’t restoring things to their true glory, they reveled in chaos and catastrophe. I regarded the woman with open suspicion. “You are up to something.”

“Yes, I am. Do you know that little trick we have in the mail chute?”

I fought my urge to laugh over the chute. “The one that turns Jace’s package deposit into a prison? We send over babies when they’ve been naughty to experience it now. Jace loves it. He makes them bring his packages up after he tires of watching them try to escape the chute. If they’ve committed a real heinous sin, they have to try to teach his black dragoness how to cook.”

“Yes, that one. We’ll do the same here, except instead of a package deposit, we’ll leave them in quite the shitty situation.”

“Just leave them alive,” I requested. Keeping the victims alive would earn me some goodwill with my captain once he found out about my home’s new ward and its nefarious trap.

“They will find themselves up to their neck in sewage. The ward will protect them from unacceptable exposure, but it will take a strong magicker with the passcode to the ward to release them—and only certain members of law enforcement will have the passcode. And if you have a mole in law enforcement in the upper levels, you will learn about it in a hurry.” Rubella smiled, and she displayed a set of sharp, pointy teeth, something she did only when truly infuriated. “I shall give out unique passcodes. Should someone be released inappropriately, we will know precisely who betrayed the police force.”

When dragons got mad, they got even. Worse, angry dragons working on their revenge erased numerous words from their personal dictionary. Moderation tended to be the first to go. They retained quit in their vocabulary, but they saved it for when they succeeded at securing vengeance.

Later, I would apologize to Captain Farthan for creating more trouble than I could handle and accept whatever punishment he concocted for me with the grace and dignity he expected from his officers.

“Is this normal?” Miranda asked, and while her eyes remained wide, she sipped her espresso until the small cup had nothing left to give. She rinsed it before placing it in the sink and engaged the drip machine and French press in a staring contest.

If the woman operated on coffee, I held confidence I could meet her basic needs—and convince her to stick close until I could do a better job of keeping her safe. As the French press finished rendering its wealth faster than the drip machine ever could, I went to work preparing her another cup. “You may or may not want cream or sugar for this. It’s up to what you like, and there’s no right nor wrong answer when it comes to how you like your coffee.”

Lance snickered. “Unless you’re discussing the type of bean to use, how it’s roasted, and the origin of the bean, in which case Lovell here feels he is the only right being on the planet. ”

I shrugged, well aware of my tendencies while at home. “I drink the crap at the station without filing complaints.”

“That is because you have more patience than any saint.” Rubella smiled and patted my shoulder. “We’ll get to work on the wards, and you can pay us with some espresso and coffee for the road.”

That I could handle, and I wouldn’t miss the travel mugs they would ultimately claim as part of their hoard. I needed new ones anyway.

I had more than a few old ones that deserved retirement in a dragon’s hoard. “I can definitely provide coffee. Do you want some grinds?”

“If you have any to spare, we’re not saying no.” The dragoness grinned at her spouse. “We can go taunt that mean old black that we have gotten some of Lovell’s grinds and he hasn’t.”

For that, I’d clear out all but a pound of my entire stash and roast a new batch. “I have ten pounds you can make off with, and I’ll roast some so Miranda can watch and learn my secrets.”

“You’ll show me how to make coffee?” the cadet asked, and I grinned at the delight in her expression.

“Sure. Wax eloquent about the beans, Lance. If the Black Dragon of New York is sniffing around, I won’t be too worried about someone coming at Miranda until we have more time to investigate and find out what’s actually going on.”

The information the woman had given me would be an excellent start, but I’d been in the force long enough to understand that she’d only begun to scratch at the surface of the problem. Worse, what she’d told me would completely redefine the investigation we thought we’d made decent progress on. In some ways, she would streamline much of what we had to work with.

In others, she’d unleashed Pandora’s box, adding so much depth and complexity to the case I doubted we’d ever be able to get to the true bottom of it. Some elements would remain the same; we’d continue to pursue the organ theft line along with the connections of criminals being the targeted victims. Other elements would need to be reevaluated and discarded, including who was behind leaving the bodies just hanging around for us to find.

Understanding we’d stumbled into an underground war would help—and hinder.

We were not equipped to handle an underground war.

“You’re clever, Lovell,” the blue dragon praised. “I’ll make sure Grant knows he needs to continue running his protection racket around town when he can. It’s easier to sleep when that one is lurking around the corner, isn’t it?”

I appreciated that the blue dragon acknowledged that the black dragon often lurked, resulting in the victims of his stealth losing a few years of their lives when he made his presence known. “Seriously.”

“You know the Black Dragon of New York?”

“He’s like something sticky on the bottom of your shoe,” I complained. “No matter how many times you try to scrape it off, it just won’t go away.”

Both dragons burst into laughter, and Rubella hugged me before wandering off to do her work. Lance just shook his head and followed after his beloved.

“I’m so confused,” Miranda confessed.

“Cauldron City is the home of the weird and weirder,” I reminded her. “It just happens that the Black Dragon of New York is enhancing our inherent weirdness right now. We keep hoping he’ll go back home, but no. I suspect we’ll all be living in that one’s shadow until those threatening his family are eradicated. Mercy made a mistake, and that mistake was touching that mean old dragon’s granddaughter. Should it happen again, I expect he’ll raze the entire city to its foundations—or head downstairs and light the entire thing on fire.”

“That sounds messy.”

I shrugged, rummaged through my collection of travel mugs, and selected the two I’d sacrifice to the dragons safeguarding my home. “The first step in avoiding such a mess is stealing the captain’s shoes and his slippers. Once we demonstrate the method, we’ll evaluate the cases we have, adjust what we understand of the evidence based on the new information, and see what we can do to stop the thefts and the murders. I hope you’re ready for a lot of hard work, Miranda. This is going to be a rough ride.”

“If it means I can get these bastards off my back, you won’t find a harder worker in Cauldron City, Detective Lovell.”

“Lovell,” I replied. Then, aware she had issues with her last name, I considered her through narrowed eyes. “I’ll even respond if you decide to call me Valor, but if I’m ribbed at the station, you’ll learn discretion is not one of my virtues in matters of revenge.”

Everyone reacted differently when I whipped out that play on words on them, especially as few expected me to weaponize words. Miranda set down her coffee, covered her mouth with her hands, and snorted. She sucked in a breath, snorted again, and lost the battle with her mirth, bursting into uncontrollable laughter.

Pleased to learn the woman stood a good chance of fitting in with us, I went to work making us good coffee for the road.

We’d need to be on our toes if we wanted to prove to Captain Farthan that Miranda knew exactly what was going on and how we might put an end to the thefts and organ thefts plaguing Cauldron City.