“Would you have gotten so many out without her?”
“No, no we needed her.”
“Take the victory. It was a good day. One question though. How did you know where to send them? Not the magic stuff, just the logistics.”
“Oh, I had a map.” Glenna smiled a little. “I’d already calculated the quickest routes to hospitals, in case any of us needed one. So it was just a matter of, well, of following the map.”
“A map.” After a laugh, Blair took a deep drink. “You’re something, Glenna. You are something else. Vampire bitch had you on her team, I think we’d be sunk. Hell of a day,” she said with a sigh. “I rode on a freaking dragon.”
“It was cute, wasn’t it, how surprised he was we didn’t have any.” Chuckling now, easier now, Glenna got down cups and saucers. “What did he look like? I paint them sometimes.”
“Like you’d expect, I guess. He was gold. Long, wicked tail—took a couple of them out with it. And the body’s more sinuous than snakelike. Yeah, long and sinuous, the body, the tail, the head. Gold eyes. God, he was beautiful. And the wings, wide, peaked, translucent. Scales big as my hand, that went from pale gold to dark, and all the shades between. And fast? Holy God, he’s fast. It’s like riding the sun. I was just…”
She trailed off when she saw Glenna leaning back against the counter, smiling.
“What?”
“I was just wondering if you have that look in your eye over the dragon or over the man.”
“We’re talking dragon. But the man’s not half bad.”
“Gorgeous, fairly adorable, and with the heart of a champion.”
Blair raised her eyebrows. “Hey, didn’t you recently get married—to somebody else?”
“It didn’t strike me blind. Just FYI? Larkin gets that look in his eye, now and again, when he turns in your direction.”
“Maybe he does, and maybe I’ll think about taking him up on it one of these days. But right now…” She slid off the table. “I’m going to go upstairs and take a really long, really hot shower.”
“Blair? Sometimes the heart of a champion is tender.”
“I’m not looking to bruise hearts.”
“I was thinking of yours, too,” Glenna replied when she was alone.
Blair heard voices from the library as she passed, and veered just close enough to identify them. Satisfied that Larkin was speaking with Moira, she rerouted for the steps to head upstairs. She wanted nothing more than to wash away the sea salt, the blood and the death.
She paused at the top of the steps when she saw Cian in the shadows of the hallway. She knew her fingers had reached down to skim over the stake in her belt, and didn’t bother to pretend she hadn’t. It was knee-jerk. Hunter, vampire. They’d both have to accept it, and move on.
“A little early for you to be up and around, isn’t it?”
“My brother has no respect for my sleep cycle.”
There was something preternaturally sexual, she thought, about a vampire staring out from the cloaked light. Or there was with this one. “Hoyt had a rough one.”
“So I could see for myself. He looked ill. But then…” The smile was slow and deliberate. “He’s human.”
“Do you work on that kind of thing? The silky voice, the dangerous smile?”
“Born with it. Died with it, too. Are we going to come to terms, you and me?”
“I think we have.” She saw his gaze slide down to her hand, and the stake under it. “Can’t help it.” But she lifted the hand away, hooked her thumb in her belt. “It’s ingrained.”
“Do you enjoy your work?”
“I guess I do, on some level. I’m good at it, and you have to like doing what you’re good at. It’s what I do. It’s what I am.”
“Yes, we are what we are.” He stepped closer. “You look as she must have when she was your age. Younger, I suppose, she’d have been younger, ou