Val looked at her brother.
“What?!”
“It would be so easy!” Lizzy said to herself.
She stood on a third-story balcony, watching the Quarter. Well, no, that wasn’t quite right. She was watching the French Quarter as it could be.
From here she could see it all. She could see the security gate that led to the complex that the McCandleses shared. She could look down the street. See the road where Valerie would turn to go to work. The road she could come back down if she went to the A&P. The path Griffen would stagger back down when he got worried about following the same roads and took the alternate path he always took.
Then she could see Valerie on the road. Not that she was there. It was an “already happened” Valerie. Valerie as Lizzy had watched her jogging early this very morning. Lizzy watched as she ran through people, who of course couldn’t see her. Didn’t feel as Valerie ghosted through them in Lizzy’s sight. Valerie wasn’t there; she was only in Lizzy’s eyes, because she was in Lizzy’s memory.
Then Valerie shifted slightly, her jogging outfit actually changing from gray to blue as Lizzy pictured a Valerie that could be. All of a sudden a figure lurched out of nowhere. Big, massive, vaguely hound-shaped. It bit into Val’s thigh and Lizzy could hear the bone crack. She could taste the blood as suddenly she was not just on the balcony, but down in the image. She was the beast, and she heard Valerie scream as Lizzy’s large, jagged teeth next sank into her throat.
Or perhaps…
Next Lizzy saw Valerie as she was when she came home from the grocery. Not carrying many bags, not needing much. A few sodas, maybe something she could heat up for the night. Or something odd. A jar of pickles, a bunch of bananas, caramel popcorn. Things Valerie wanted because already her body was craving things for the baby.
Wait till it grew a little more, Lizzy thought. Some of the things a dragon mommy craved could get really interesting.
A shot rang out, and Lizzy felt the butt of the rifle strike her shoulder. The first blow took Valerie in the head, and there was no blood. Skin too thick. But it distracted her, held her. The next blow took her in the belly, then another, then another. Six shots into the stomach, and no more Auntie Lizzy.
Lizzy gasped and threw the phantom rifle from her. That last thought, it had been sad. So sad. Tears were streaming down her face. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d cried because she had been sad.
Maybe instead…
Now Lizzy saw Griffen. She had watched him many times in the last few days. Mostly she watched him when he was with her, Valerie, the one Lizzy hated. He seemed so weak, so young. She hadn’t really seen anything in him that she hated. Not like her brothers at all. She didn’t really want to hurt him… but she could.
She saw him now, as if he were walking home after a night’s few drinks. Staggering just a bit, which was impressive for a dragon. It must have been a long night.
Lizzy steps out of the shadows into the light of the small bookstore. It always left a light on the street at night. She wears a dress so tight she might as well just have shifted her skin to a different color. She breathes deep and steps toward him, swaying.
He blinks, but reaches for her. How could he not? She smiles, and kisses him. Now her tongue is in his mouth, and the skin in the mouth, it’s not so tough. It would be nothing to just… push… into something soft and weak.
Mai grabs her from behind. Lizzy has heard of Mai, seen her a few times since she has been stalking Valerie. But never tangled with her. Now she feels a grip strong as marble and looks into eyes as cold as a spider’s.
Lizzy gasped again and threw herself away from the balcony, against the brick wall of the building. Her heart was racing. Even in her own head, Mai had been something Lizzy didn’t want to face.
Lizzy looked out on the street and had to blink twice, hard. There she was, Valerie, and not just in Lizzy’s head. Real, solid, walking as if she owned the world. She walked into her apartment complex, the gates shutting securely behind her. Not enough to keep Lizzy out, but she felt as if they were taunting her.
Lizzy snarled.
“Why?” she said. “Why can’t I just beat her? Why do I care? Someone tell Lizzy!”
She whirled to the girl cowering in the corner of the balcony. Out of sight from the world. She had been there when Lizzy had fallen from the roof onto the convenient balcony. Lizzy had swatted her down, then turned her attention to the street.
She could smell the girl’s terror. She was so afraid of Lizzy that she hadn’t screamed once.
“Well? Nothing to say? Lizzy is better than her! Prettier. Stronger. Maybe not smarter… but what are smarts these days?”
She stalked toward the girl, her voice seemingly filling the world. Or was that just her own ears? No one had once looked up from the street at her. She couldn’t have been that loud. Or was she concealing again? Not that it mattered.
“Maybe you think you are smart, you are pretty. You are, for a human. You have nice hair,” Lizzy said.
The girl curled up a little tighter. Lizzy smiled cruelly, but she did like the straight black hair. Maybe she should go back to that color sometime?
“Do you have family? Answer Lizzy, or I will be very upset.”
The girl nodded mutely.
“Brothers?”
She nodded again.
“And when one of them brought someone home, a girl.
What did you feel? Fear? Anger? What?!”
Lizzy did her best to make her expression soft. It didn’t take much. There was a yearning inside. A need to know, to understand.
The girl looked her in her many-colored, fractured eyes. Lizzy noticed her eyes were kind of a soft watery brown. Like a deer’s.
“I… I was… happy for them,” the girl said in a voice so soft Lizzy could barely hear.
Lizzy’s blood went cold. Her smile faded, and her eyes narrowed. The girl burst into tears.
For some reason that made her smile.
“Oh, poor little girl. You must not be right in the head. No wonder Lizzy startles you so. Don’t worry. Lizzy will put you to bed. And when you wake up, remember this was all a dream.”
She moved forward quickly, struck the girl just enough to knock her out. Lizzy picked her up and carried her inside the apartment.
“I don’t know why I am talking to silly puppets like you,” Lizzy said to the girl in her arms. “I need someone who has a chance of understanding.”
She peeled the girl out of her clothes. Looked at her for a moment, and decided that yes, she was pretty. Then tucked her snugly into her bed and pulled a nearby stuffed animal from the dresser and put it next to her head.
Lizzy watched her sleeping for a moment. Reached out and stroked the lovely hair once. Thought about killing her and left to get a drink.
There had to be someone in this town she could talk to.
Thirty-one
Of all the fears and worries Griffen had regarding the conclave, there was one he had not figured on at all. He had no experience at public speaking.
The requirement surfaced suddenly when it was casually mentioned to him that, as moderator, he would be
