city of dragons 03 - fire magic by val st crowe Page A

thinking the same thing,” he said. “And we’re going to have to work fast, because they’re going to be looking for something that they can use to make an arrest.”
    “What? You think they’ll arrest us?”
    “They need some kind of proof, Penny, and there’s no physical evidence, because neither of us did it, so we’ve probably got time. We’ll need to make a list of all the people who could have killed Alastair.”
    I chewed on my lip. “I can’t think of anyone.”
    “Guy like Alastair? People had to hate him.”
    “He was very charming to people he wasn’t close to,” I said.
    “Maybe someone who did work for him. You can’t tell me he was charming to the help.” Lachlan raised his eyebrows.
    “Um… well, he was.” I got up and picked up one of the brooms. Maybe I’d think better if I was doing something. I started to sweep.
    “Jesus, Penny, let me do that.” Lachlan was on his feet, coming for me.
    “I can sweep,” I said.
    He took the broom from me. “Sit down.”
    I furrowed my brow. “I’m perfectly capable of sweeping up glass. And it needs to be done before it gets much later, because I don’t want to have the pool closed today.”
    “You don’t need to overexert yourself,” he said.
    “Sweeping is not exactly climbing Mount Everest,” I said. “What’s up with you?” I sat down on one of the chairs.
    He wouldn’t look at me. “I’m worthless as a detective currently. I can be helpful here, at least. I can sweep your damn patio. You just sit there and think about who hated Alastair.”
    I shook my head. “Besides us? No one.”
    * * *
    Lachlan was drinking beer, but he hadn’t offered me any. Which was fine, I wasn’t drinking while I was pregnant. But I was kind of annoyed that he didn’t even seem to think it was rude that I didn’t want any.
    We were nowhere near coming up with any suspects in Alastair’s murder.
    “Look,” I said, “it has to be a slayer. It’s the only thing that makes any sense. Let’s go talk to that Clarke Gannon person we talked to last time. She seemed marginally more together than that Otis guy, but we could talk to him too. Maybe one of them knows something.”
    Lachlan took a long drink of beer. “I’ve got it.”
    “You do?”
    “Fletcher Remington’s family. Maybe his dad. You remember how aggressive his father was when we were interviewing him?”
    Fletcher Remington was the heroin-addicted dragon that Alastair had sacrificed in order to gain his powers.
    “I don’t know, Lachlan,” I said. “None of this makes any sense. Alastair was crazy powerful. How could anyone have killed him? We couldn’t kill him, and it wasn’t for lack of trying, and we have the blood bond.”
    Lachlan grimaced. “I don’t know either. Is there anyone powerful who hated Alastair?”
    “I’ve been telling you,” I said. “No one hated him.”
    He sighed.
    And then someone was banging on the door to my apartment.
    I got up, heading across the room to open the door. Who the hell was knocking like that? I hoped Brian’s stupid boyfriend wasn’t back again, itching to pick another fight.
    “SCPD,” called a voice on the other side of the door.
    I froze, turning to Lachlan. “You said we had time. You said they’d need evidence.”
    He was on his feet as well, his face pale. “Penny, listen to me—”
    “Open up!” called the voice, rapping on the door again.
    “Open the door,” said Lachlan, “or they’ll break it down.”
    “But…” I hesitated. I lowered my voice. “We should fight them.” I held out my wrist. “Drink.” Lachlan and I needed to charge up the power of our blood bond by his drinking my blood.
    “No, that’s a bad idea,” he said. “We don’t know what would happen if I drank your blood.”
    “You’ve done it tons of times,” I said.
    “Yeah, but not now that you’re—”
    And the door burst open and my tiny living room was swarmed with uniformed men with guns.
    I panicked. I threw out magic