Chapter Nineteen
Aaron pushed the tape out of the way and held it up for Niko to walk in. The sound of glass crunching under their shoes was disconcerting.
“Did they just keep going after they took everything?”
With a sigh, Aaron nodded. “Actually. Yes. They did. Wyatt pistol whipped you and footage from the cameras showed him gleefully smashing any remaining glass. Front windows included. Just everything.”
“Everything?”
“They never went in the back. She never showed them the hordes.”
Relief washed through him. “At least she left me that.”
“You think we wouldn’t have all gone after her already if she had so much as looked at the door?”
“You think I would have let you?”
Aaron raised an eyebrow. “She destroyed our store, Niko. She led them here and wrecked the whole damn thing. The only thing that’s going to feed my family until this rebuilt is the gold in the basement. Maybe this was a hobby to you, but this was my job. A job I really enjoyed. And Betsy destroyed it. Let those two maniacs smash it up and ruin us. So frankly, your Dragon can shove it up his cloaca, for all I care.”
“I don’t have cloaca.”
“Then shove it up your asshole!”
Aaron marched across the glass as it crunched and broke under his foot. He disappeared into the back and left Niko standing amid the mess.
Pursing his lips, he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be feeling. He had fallen in love with Betsy, and now he was standing in the middle of the mess she left behind.
“Are you going to go after her?”
He looked up to find Rijn the Recluse standing there, next to Sia. He had never seen Rijn anywhere but in his house, far away from the population.
“How…”
He smiled. “Not the time for explanation.”
“Are you going after her?” Sia posed the question again.
“She made her choice.”
Rijn took a few steps into the store on the crunching glass. “That she did, but do you understand what the question was?”
“Dude, you can’t possibly show up here now and expect me to just acquiesce to being tossed riddles.”
With a deep, resonant laugh, Rijn nodded. “Seeing this mess, I understand why you doubt her. And knowing they pocketed her mating stone, I understand why you think she left.” He ran his finger over the edge of the case that had held the necklaces. “But, isn’t it possible she made that choice to protect you?”
“Well, we’ll never know.”
“Things are happening, Niko. Your mate is the trigger. She must be here with you. You must go after her.”
“She made her choice.”
Sia walked around and stood in front of him. “She made a choice to protect you. To protect your secret, this whole town’s secret. Do you think she would have left without your hoard if she wasn’t? She’d’ve found a way to take that gold.”
Niko stared at Sia. “She left this morning. I had no sense of deception. But they were here just two hours later. She told me he wasn’t back for a few more days.”
Aaron’s voice floated forward from the back room. “You’re being an asshole, dragon!”
“You were just pissed at her!” Niko screamed back.
Popping his head around the corner, Aaron snarled at him. “I am pissed at her. But she’s still your mate. And I’d be willing to forgive her if she did this to protect you.”
“Bipolar magical green dick.”
“Flaming dickbag.” Aaron disappeared into the back again.
Rijn touched his arm to bring him back to the conversation. “Niko—”
Pulling his hand away, Niko stared at him. “If I believed this, I wouldn’t even know where to start looking for her. Them. All of her family is back east and she hasn’t spoken to anyone in years. She never told me where they were planning on heading.”
Rijn slumped. “I guess I could—”
“No.” Sia’s firm voice cut him off. “You’re not ready to cast again. It’s too soon. Why don’t we all try just good old-fashioned police work first.”
Looking between the two of them, Niko let out a sigh, and the now ubiquitous puff of smoke. “I don’t know if I want to go after her.”
“When did you start breathing fire?” Sia’s voice was low and surprised.
“I’m not breathing fire. I’m just blowing smoke. I don’t know why this started. It’s annoying. I can’t control it.”
“It’s a mating sign,” she said. “You grandfather explained it to us over dinner one night.”
“Pappoús is here?”
“Poppy brought us there.” Sia waved him off. “You have to find her, Niko. You have to. If you don’t find her and either mate her or reject her, you’ll die.”
Rijn had his phone out and it was dialing his grandfather’s number. Niko took the phone and held it to his ear.
“Hello, Rijn.”
“Pappoús, it’s Niko.”
“Nikomedes! Hello! What’s going on? Have you figured out what to do with your little mate?”
“That’s a long and complicated story, Grandfather. Right now, Rijn just shoved his phone in my hand and had dialed you. He seems distressed that I’m puffing smoke once in a while.”
“Puffing smoke?”
“When I sigh or breathe deeply.”
“Your fires are awakening. That will stop when you mate your little filly.”
Niko paused. “What... if I never mate with her?”
“Never… what’s going on?”
“Grandfather! Answer the question! You’ve all left me here alone to figure out all this dragon shit on my own my whole life! Just answer my fucking question without dodging or dicking me around!”
The answer came through immediately. “The smoke is a sign that your fire is waking outside your element. It’s a sign that you’ve begun mating. It’s irreversible until you either mate or reject her.”
“What happens if I never see her again?”
“You die.”
“Excuse the fuck out of you?”
“The fires have started. There’s only one thing to do, and that’s to stoke them to full flame. If you don’t… you will burn from the inside out.”
A dizzy spell like no other slammed into Niko and drove him to hit the wall with his shoulder trying to stay upright. “I’m going to die?”
“What?” Aaron and Sia screamed.
“If you don’t claim your mate you’ll burn, slowly.”
Niko smashed the phone as hard as he could into the cement wall he was leaning on. The phone crumbled to bits, the wall dented in, and Niko finally lost to gravity and hit the floor.
“What do you mean, you’re going to die?” Aaron asked, scurrying over.
He looked up at the audience of three. “The mating started. The smoke is the sign that the fires are rising. If I don’t fully mate her, I will literally burn from the inside out.”
* * *
There was a knock on the front door, and the five of them looked up from the maps and books on the table. Exchanging glances, Niko finally got up and walked to the front door of the house.
Keni, the waitress from the diner, stood there, looking tousled and distressed. Next to her was a smartly dressed woman, carrying what could only be called a portmanteau. Pulling the door open, he nodded a greeting. “Hey, Keni. What are you doing here?”
“Came to help. I heard what’s going on.”
“The grapevine is strong and healthy in this town, I see. Who’s your friend?”
Motioning them into the house, Keni answered, “This is Amy Hogan, Esquire.”
The neat woman offered her hand and Niko was instantly suspicious. She raised an eyebrow. “I’m Betsy’s best friend from when we were kids. You must be the reason she called me.”
“When did she call?” Niko almost tripped over the words.
“Relax, Puff,” Sia said from the kitchen. “It was before she disappeared.”
Niko grunted and shook her hand. “Sorry. Hello. I’m Niko Tavoularis.”
“Pleasure.”
“How did you know to come here?” Rijn asked as they entered the kitchen again.
“Triangulation. Her phone is on, somewhere in this town.”
Another round of glances at each other, and Sia shook her head. “Her apartment. The phone has to be there. She would have left it behind for exactly this reason. They couldn’t find her by triangulation.”
Keni shook her head. “That would have been days ago, and that apartment is ninety percent cleaned out.”
“Well, the phone has to be in the last ten,” Max said, leaning forward. “Who has the key?”
Niko, and everyone else, watched as Max’s gaze collided and connected with Amy’s, igniting the air around them. He’d never seen a dragon mate connection actually happen in front of him. He wondered if that hot and heavy feeling was the same thing other people felt when he and Betsy were together.
Amy’s mouth dropped open, then snapped shut again and she cleared her throat.
Keni interrupted the awkward silence. “No one had a spare key. We have to get the landlord to let us in. Henry Zhang owns them.”
Max finally ripped his eyes away from Amy. “Keni, you—”
“Absolutely not. No. Find someone else to talk to him.”
Sia was shaking her head, desperately telling Niko that was a no. Niko yanked his phone off the table and dialed Henry’s number. “I’m dying and you’re fucking around with old feuds. Screw you all.”
The line went live. “Zhang. This better be important.”
“Henry. It’s Niko. We need to get into Betsy’s old apartment. Can you let us in?”
“It’s ten at night.”
“Henry. This is not a joke.”
He paused, then agreed. “Give me ten minutes to get there.”
Niko ended the call and stood. “Amy, if you’re really here to help her and me, come on. We’re not wasting any more time. Let’s get to her apartment and find out if she left us a clue. I don’t feel like dying.”
As Niko strode past the newest arrival, she turned and locked step with him. “I’m not sure what’s going on here, but I do know my geolocator has been pinging since I got here. She called me two weeks ago. I promised to give her four.”
“Why did you come now?” Niko pulled the door open. “If you’re as good a friend as you say—”
“Something wasn’t right. I…” The woman swallowed hard. “You won’t believe me.”
He opened to door for her to climb in. “One, you’re Betsy’s friend. So you get credibility points there. Two, I’m literally dying from in the inside out. Three, try me. You’d be shocked what I’m willing to believe.”
Amy sat in the car and Niko slammed the door. Keni, Max, and Sia ran after them—and Max didn’t give either of the women a chance to get in the back seat before he was firmly seated behind Amy.
Rijn grabbed Sia’s arm. “Come with me. We’ll meet them there. Keni, get in with Niko and Amy.”
Niko waited until Keni had shut the door before backing out of his driveway. “This is crash friendship, Amy. Sorry about this. I’m Niko, that’s Max behind you and Keni is behind me. So what was it you thought I wouldn’t believe? What was the reason you came here?”
The fastidious looking woman with the mouse brown hair and bright green eyes stared straight ahead. “I felt like there was something wrong. And I dreamed there was.”
“Just a dream?” Keni asked.
She shook her head. “No. I…” Pausing, she cleared her throat. “My family is made up of dreamwalkers.”
Keni gasped and sat forward. “Really? A whole family?”
“Wait, you believe me?” Amy turned in the chair.
Raising her eyebrow, Keni smiled, and Niko caught the burst of her lavender-colored magic out of the corner of his eye. Max’s grin was blinding.
“Welcome to Pine Valley,” Niko offered.
“You’re all mages?”
“Sorcerer, here,” Keni answered.
“Dragon shifters,” Max said, pointing between himself and Niko. “You’ll find there are a lot of magicals in the Valley.”
Looking directly at Niko, Amy had a single question. “Does she know?”
“Yes.”
An audible sigh of relief escaped her and she slid into the seat. “Oh, thank God. I was so tired of keeping it from her.” She glanced at them all. “You know she’s a loci, right?”
“A what?” Max asked.
“A loci,” Amy repeated.
“It’s a magical focal point.” Niko turned the car down the road as he explained. “She doesn’t have power on her own, but it swirls around her. She’s a change point. Her decisions affect the world and magic around her.”
Amy shook her head. “It’s more than that. There are five loci. One for each element—”
“There are only four elements.” Max sliced into her words.
“There have always been five,” Amy answered. “But the last has never needed to be represented because three thousand years ago, it was universally accepted. Now, we’ve lost sight of it. So, there must be five loci. And wherever those five loci find themselves, that spot becomes the new omphalos.”
“The omphalos?” Max scratched at his chin. “Isn’t that in Greece? At Delphi?”
“It is. It has been for thousands of years. It’s the naval of the magical world. But it has to move.”
“How do you know all this?” Keni asked.
“Dreamwalkers don’t just walk dreams. We’re keepers. We write down oral history and traditions and folk lore, and we pass it down and read it and study it. Thousands of years. Hundreds of generations. And it’s a damn relief to be able to talk to so many people. But my point is that Betsy is the Loci Premier. We have to find her and get her to safety. If she doesn’t make the decision, nothing happens. The omphalos stays in Delphi. If she dies, the world will fall into chaos.”
“And if we don’t find her, I will die.”
Amy gasped. “What? Why would you say that?”
“Betsy is my mate. Somewhere in the past few days, she triggered the mating process, which starts my flames. Except if we don’t mate, the flames never really ignite and I burn slowly from the inside out.”
“We have to find her. For so many reasons. Wyatt and Wayne are murderers. If she doesn’t play along perfectly, they’ll kill her.” Amy sighed.
Niko pulled the car into the parking lot of the apartment complex. Henry’s car was waiting near the entrance, and as soon as he saw Niko, he climbed out—then halted when he saw Keni climb out.
“Christ, what’s going on here?” Niko mumbled. He could see the threads of mating connection between Keni and Henry this time. It was just dragon hook-up central.
Keni stared at Niko, hard. “Ignore it. He has. For fifty years.”
Well, that was a history he didn’t have time to investigate. He marched over to where Henry was waiting for them.
“What’s going on? I had the place mostly cleaned. There’s just some furniture and leftovers in there.” Shoving the key in the knob, he unlocked it and let them into the apartment. “Are you really so broken up about a thief, Niko?”
“She’s not a thief,” Amy snapped. “I think she’s playing along with them so they don’t kill her. We just need to find if there’s a cell phone in here.”
“A cell phone?” Henry asked. “You really think she’d leave her phone behind? They’re thieves. They would have taken that thing and smashed it as soon as they could.”
“She not only left, but she left it on.” Amy started pulling open cabinets and drawers. “I don’t know how it’s possible, but that damn thing was still on just less than two hours ago when I pinged it.”
“You haven’t had any outlets installed in weird places, have you, Henry?” Max asked.
“I upgrade the electrical in each apartment before it’s rented again or every five years if I need to. I haven’t added any since the eighties when they changed the code from two in a room to receptacles every ten feet in the town code.”
Niko smiled. “That would put one behind the bed, wouldn’t it?”
Amy darted into the bedroom with Niko and Keni on her tail. She dove under the bed and let out a squawk of triumph, emerging a moment later with a phone—Betsy’s phone—in hand. “I knew she didn’t want to go with them!”
Swiping the face of it, the phone opened and there were dozens of app notifications on the top, but she chose the task manager instead to see what might still be running. Niko watched as she paged through, stopping at the note app.
It popped open on the screen, and there was a note sitting there.
Amy and Niko looked at each other.
“Las Vegas,” Niko mumbled. “How will we find her there?”
“I can do some spells,” Keni said. “If you can get me within a few miles of her, they’ll work. Did she give you anything else? Leave anything else? We’ll need something that’s hers…”
“There’s… uh… Yeah. Back at my house. She left some clothes.”
“Good, perfect. Her bra, eh?” Keni raised an eyebrow.
Niko felt himself flush red. “Yeah.”
“Doesn’t matter. As long as it’s hers. Who’s going with? We have to get going. They have two weeks on us and we need to get there. Hey, the three of you are dragons… can we fly there?”
“No, I can’t fly,” Niko said.
“I can, but I can’t carry more than one person,” Max answered.
“I’m not going,” Henry answered.
Keni turned around and stuck her middle finger up at him. “No one, literally no one, asked you, Henry Zheng. So shut up and fuck off.” She turned back to the others. “So Max doesn’t need to go. We only need Niko. Amy and I should go. Amy, do you have a bag?”
“In my car, back at Niko’s place.”
“Good, we have to go back there anyway.” Keni nodded. “Sia and Rijn will be here in a minute, and we’ll let them know what’s going on. I’ll go back to my place with them and pack a bag, and we’ll hit the road as soon as we’re all ready.”
Niko laid a hand on her arm. “Are you sure about this? You’re sure you can find her when we get there?”
“We’ll find her, Niko. I like her. She’s a good person. You’re in love with her, and we need her back here.”
“We all need her back or the magical world is going to go off-kilter.” Amy looked around the room at the people standing there. “Thank you all for trusting me. I didn’t know what to expect when I got here. I’ve missed my best friend for too many years and knowing how important she was without being able to tell her was killing me.”
Keni smiled. “Let’s go get her back. For you and Niko.”