“Justin,” Julius said, as calmly as he could manage. “You can’t just fly around in the DFZ. Do youwantChelsie to gut you?”
“She’d have to catch me first,” his brother replied with a smug smile. “You look terrible, by the way.”
Julius decided to ignore that comment. “What are you doing here? I thought you were in China.”
“I was, but then I heard Mother kicked you out, so when Bob sent me a ticket to the DFZ, I thought I’d come lend you a hand.”
Julius’s stomach sank. “You heard about that in China?”
“Everyone’sheard about it,” Justin said. “There’s actually a betting pool going for how long you’ll last.” He arched a dark eyebrow. “You know, a little gratitude wouldn’t be out of order. I did just fly halfway around the world to come help you.”
Julius sighed. “Thank you. But—”
“You’re welcome,” Justin said, slapping his hands together. “Now, who are we killing?”
Julius was opening his mouth to say they wouldn’t be killing anyone when he heard soft, quick footsteps in the street behind him, and his blood went cold.Oh no,he thought as Justin’s eyes darted to the mouth of the alley. Notnow.
But, of course, Marci chose that moment to walk around the corner. She stopped with a gasp, her hands flying to her mouth just as Justin’s fell to the hilt of his sword. For a second, Julius thought his brother was going to attack first and ask questions later, but Justin did nothing of the sort. He did something much worse.
“Well, well, well,” he said an innuendo-laden voice loud enough to be heard for blocks. “Is thatyourhuman?”
And that was when Julius began praying that Chelsiewaswatching, because a quick death from behind was starting to sound very nice indeed.
Chapter 7
“She’s surprisingly hot,” Justin went on, nodding in approval. “Good job, Julius. Didn’t know you had it in you.”
Julius flashed Marci an apologetic look before grabbing his brother and yanking him down with a strength he’d never known he had. “She’s notmyhuman,” he whispered frantically. “She’sahuman, and she’s helping me. She also doesn’t know what weare.”
Any sane dragon would have gotten the hint after that and shut up. Justin, of course, paid no attention whatsoever.
He pushed out of Julius’s hold and walked down the alley, coming to a stop in front of Marci with his legs apart and his hands on his hips like a draconic Conan the Barbarian. “You, girl,” he said. “What’s your name?”
Marci shot a nervous glance at Julius, which he couldn’t return thanks to the palm he was currently slapping against his forehead. “Um, I’m Marci Novalli.”
Justin nodded like this was acceptable and stuck out his hand. “Justin, Knight of the Mountain and Fifth Blade of Bethesda. You know, you don’t look half bad for a human.”
“Thanks? I think?” Marci said, shaking Justin’s offered hand like it was an unexploded land mine. “I’m guessing you’re Julius’s brother?”
“His olderbrother,” Justin said pointedly.
“By two minutes,” Julius snapped, cutting between them before this situation could finish going from bad to worse and move on to catastrophic. “Sorry, Marci, can I borrow Justin for a sec?”
She backed off at once, putting her hands up with clear relief. “All yours. Sorry I interrupted. I’m just going to go back to the car. You guys reconnect or whatever.”
Justin watched her walk away with an appreciative ogle at her backside. “You have unexpectedly good taste,” he said, turning back to Julius. “But do you really have time to be playing around with humans? Mother’s going to eat you soon if you don’t start showing some initiative.”
“I’m working on it,” Julius said. “And Marci is an integral part of that, which is why you need toshut upbefore you get her killed.”
“What are you so worked up about? Lots of dragons have humans. Just keep her on a tight leash and you’ll be fine.”
Julius closed his eyes, wishing he could close his ears. This wasexactlywhy his brother couldn’t stay. Five minutes with him and Marci would have to be stupid not to guess the truth. Of course, given five minutes, Justin would probably manage to insult her so badly she’d be ready to turn them both in to Algonquin for the bounty. Julius half wanted to turn Justin in himself already, but while he wasn’t feeling it at the moment, Justin was usually one of the few brothers he actually liked, which was why he decided to nip this in the bud as nicely as possible.
“Listen, Justin,” he said in a calm, measured voice. “I really do appreciate you coming all this way to support me. It means a lot, but this isn’t your kind of operation. I’m doing a delicate job for Ian, and—”
“What job?”
It would be more work to put Justin off than to tell him, so Julius quickly explained the situation with Svena and Katya, going to the shaman party, and how he’d come to be standing in front an empty commuter deck in the middle of the night.
