The week turned into one of the longest of Leif’s life. Sofia followed him around with her damn clipboard, muttering and clucking disapprovingly while making little notes and checkmarks. By Friday, it took all of Leif’s self-control not to lose his temper on her completely. She obviously thought her position as a low-level auditor gave her some great power over him, but it didn’t. Leif wasn’t afraid of what she might report back to the High Council. He was doing a damn good job in his new position, and he knew it. Besides, he was one of the few dragons in Torch Lake. The High Council had a duty to make sure no one here was dipping into dark magic, sure. But they wouldn’t dare piss off a dragon. They couldn’t afford to lose any dragons in this town. In fact, they were actively trying to recruit more dragons as citizens. That’s the whole reason Leif was here—to convince the dragons who were new to town that Torch Lake was the best place in the shifter-wizard world to put down roots.
On the surface, the training program was touted as a way to get dragons in shape to go hunt dark monsters. Dark monsters were left over from the Great Dark Magic War that had ended three years ago. A few dark monsters had escaped and bred, until the number of these creatures roaming freely had become disturbingly large. Luckily, dragon fire could kill off the monsters easily, so the High Council of Torch Lake had started recruiting dragons to come to Torch Lake and do just that. The High Council was paying exorbitant funds, in excess of a million dollars, to each dragon who completed a training program and then killed off a dark monster. But the point of the months-long training program wasn’t actually to prepare the dragons to breathe fire on a few monsters. That part was easy, and a single day’s briefing would have been sufficient for most dragon shifters. No, the training program functioned as an excuse to keep the dragon shifters in Torch Lake for an extended period of time, in hopes that they would fall in love with the town and choose to stay here permanently. Seth and Evan were the first dragons Leif had trained, and he was determined to convince them both to move to Torch Lake. Sofia, with her snotty clipboard, was an unnecessary distraction from the real work he was doing.
“So,” Leif said as he collapsed into the chair in his office. “Are you satisfied that everything over here is in order?” He crossed his arms across his chest as Sofia sat daintily in the guest chair, her pen poised over her ever-present clipboard.
“Well, Mr. Redding—”
Leif rolled his eyes. “Just call me Leif.”
She didn’t miss a beat. “Well, Leif, I can tell that you are working very hard. The High Council appreciates all the effort you are putting in to train the new dragons. And I found no hints of dark magic use in the department.”
“Imagine that,” Leif said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes again.
Sofia gave him a sharp look. “Mr. Redding, this is not a matter to be taken lightly. We all need to work together to hold back dark magic. If you have nothing to hide, then you should be happy to have your department audited.”
Leif’s anger flared. “Just because I have nothing to hide doesn’t mean I have to be excited about some nosy government agent following me around with a clipboard all week. You’ve seen that there’s no dark magic here, so now I’ll thank you to go back to the High Council and let them know everything here is in order, and leave us alone to do our work.”
Sofia tapped her pen on her clipboard. “Well, almost everything here is in order. But there is one issue we need to address.”
Leif clenched his fists tight and did his best to bite back more sarcastic words. The calmer he stayed, the sooner he would be able to get this woman out of his office for good. “Oh?”
“Yes. You see, the High Council is concerned with the amount of frivolous spending that has been going on in the various government departments since the town’s inception three years ago. It seems that, since this town is new, many thought they could get away with spending however much they wanted on whatever they wanted. Not many departments have stayed within budget.”
“Okay,” Leif said slowly, not sure he understood. This was about money? He had nothing to worry about, then. The Dragon Utilization Department spent hardly any money on a regular basis. No one here was out buying unnecessary office equipment or throwing frilly office parties.
“The High Council is not just sending me out to look for evidence of dark magic use, although that is certainly an important part of my job. But I’ve also been tasked with finding ways to cut back on expenses.”
Sofia looked at him proudly, as though she had just announced that she’d been elected as a High Councilor herself, or something extraordinary like that. Leif wished she would wipe the smirk off her face and get to the point, but he forced himself to hold his tongue. The less he said, the quicker she would get through whatever pointless lecture she wanted to make, and the sooner he could go home and get away from her. When Sofia realized that Leif was not going to reply, she sighed and continued speaking.
“I commend you on running a relatively low-cost training program here. However, the program, while low cost, still runs too long. I’m going to recommend to the High Council that a time limit be placed on the dragon training program. The two dragons you have here have already been in training for a month, and all they seem to be doing is working out constantly. There is no reason they need to be in any better physical shape than they are now in order to hunt down dark monsters.”
Leif gave Sofia a blank stare for a moment. Then he threw back his head and laughed. “Oh, that’s rich. You have no idea how this program actually works, do you?”
Sofia’s eyes darkened. “I’m well aware of how the dragon training program works, Mr. Redding. I—”
“Call me Leif.”
“I’m well aware of how the program works, Leif. But my job is to save the city money and make sure everyone is operating on a reasonable budget. Three months of ‘training’ that actually consists of merely working out is not reasonable. Send the dragons out to kill some dark monsters, and do it now. Otherwise, I’ll have to report to the High Council that your department is not running efficiently.”
Leif laughed again. “Go ahead and tell the High Council we’re not running efficiently. You realize they pay these guys over a million dollars to come to Torch Lake, right? The point of this program is to bring dragons to Torch Lake, not to kill dark monsters. If all the High Council wanted was to kill off the dark monsters, then they could just send Clint and me down to do the job. We’d have it taken care of in less than a week. So go ahead. Go tell the High Council that you want to get these dragons out of here sooner rather than later. They’ll be wildly impressed that you want to get rid of the dragons they paid millions of dollars to recruit.”
Sofia narrowed her eyes at him. “Spending so much money to bring dragons here under the barely legitimate reason of hunting dark monsters is horribly inefficient. There has to be a better way.”
Leif shrugged. “Perhaps there is. But right now, this is the way that the High Council has chosen. My job is to follow their orders, so that’s what I’m doing. Now, is there anything else you’d like to complain about? It’s Friday, and I’d like to get out of here at a reasonable time.”
Sofia looked down at her clipboard, her brow furrowed in anger or frustration—or perhaps both. She scanned whatever was written in her notes, then looked up and shook her head stiffly at him. “No. I think I’ve got everything I need for my report. Thank you for your time, Mr. Redding.”
Leif didn’t bother telling her to call him Leif. He didn’t care how she addressed him anymore. He just wanted her to get out of here. She stood and held out her hand to shake his, then stiffly turned and walked out of his office door. Leif’s office was at the end of a long hallway, so he was able to watch her for a long time as she walked away. Today, she was wearing a navy blue skirt suit. She had on a pair of gray high heels, which clicked the ground with every step, and Leif wondered why women bothered to put themselves through the torture of such ridiculous shoes in the name of fashion. He was pretty sure he would have been just as impressed with Sofia’s body no matter what kind of shoes she was wearing. Her long legs were strong and slender, and her curves filled out the suit perfectly. Her hair was up in a bun today, but the wavy tendrils wouldn’t quite stay put. They kept escaping, and several were falling around her shoulders in a strangely seductive way.
In fact, everything about Sofia’s body felt seductive. Leif found himself grateful that she had acted so obnoxiously. He might have been tempted to ask her on a date if she’d been the least bit nice. And dating the girl sent to audit his department probably wouldn’t have been the wisest of ideas. He was sure there was a conflict of interest in there that the High Council would not approve of, and the last thing he wanted to do was draw the disapproval of the High Council. He was still new at this job, and there were old dragons on the High Council who would have no qualms about firing him. They didn’t consider his “dragon status” as anything special, even if all the other shifters and wizards did.
When Sofia finally disappeared around the corner of the hallway, Leif pulled out his phone and sent a group text to his friends Jake, Russ, and Clint. Winking Wizard tonight? I could use a good beer or ten.
Within moments, his phone was buzzing back with excited replies. Leif wasn’t the only one who’d had a hard week. The rest of the crew was ready to head to their favorite bar and relax as well. Leif did his best to push Sofia from his mind. It was the weekend. Time to have fun. Besides, all Sofia was going to do when she went to the High Council was make herself look like an idiot. Leif had nothing to worry about.
If he had known that Sofia wasn’t heading back to High Council headquarters, but rather to a secret meeting of wizards and shifters who wanted him dead, Leif might have been a bit more worried.