No.
White Snake began to thrash wildly. This was it. They’d come for her. She didn’t know who “they” were yet, but only another dragon could have moved so quickly. She had to get out of here before their mortals cornered her. Had to run before their teeth found her exposed throat and—
Her panicked thoughts froze as the wind shifted, bringing the smell of gunmetal and plastic and human, but not dragon. But while she didn’t scent another of her own kind, she did smell blood. That wasn’t unusual when dealing with humans, but the amount she scented now was absurd. The stench rolling down the bank was enough to fill the river. Human blood, animal blood, magical blood, more blood than she’d seen spilled in all her life put together. The sheer scope of it overwhelmed her pain-addled brain, leaving her dizzy and confused for several moments. A critical several moments, it turned out.
“Hello, lovely.”
White Snake bared her teeth. She’d only heard one truck stop, but there must have been several, because when she looked up, the riverbank was crowded with humans in black armor pointing weapons at her face. But the mortals weren’t what concerned her. Her attention was locked on the man standing behind them. The surprisingly normal-looking, middle-aged man in an expensive suit who was the source of all that blood.
“You are the one they call White Snake, yes?”
White Snake took a breath in reply, sparks popping around her mouth as she prepared to drown these fools in fire. She didn’t know what the man was, but no one who smelled of that much blood was good news. But as the first licks of flame climbed in her throat, the bloody man lifted his hand.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he said, reaching out to tap his fingers against the barrel of the huge gun the armored soldier next to him was pointing at White Snake’s snout. “These aren’t ordinary weapons. They’re anti-dragon guns. A bit of a specialty firearm, but in a city this infested with dragons, it seemed a smart purchase. Not that I ever expected a treasure like you to fall out of the sky, but that’s the joy of being prepared.” He grinned. “Victory always favors you.”
White Snake growled deep in her throat, but she swallowed her fire. Now that he’d drawn her attention to it, she could indeed see that the guns pointed at her were much bigger than usual, their huge barrels stamped with an A surrounded by cresting waves. The Lady of the Great Lakes hadn’t been seen above water since the Spirit of the DFZ defeated her twenty years ago, but every dragon with a brain still recognized the symbol of Algonquin’s dragon hunters. It could still have been a bluff, but White Snake was in no position to call it. If a lifetime in exile had taught her anything, it was never to gamble what you couldn’t afford to lose.
With that, the last of her flames snuffed out, and the man’s smile widened. “That’s better,” he said in a deep, pleased voice. “Now we can negotiate.”
“It’s not much of a negotiation if one of us is talking at gunpoint,” White Snake said, eyeing the armored humans, who had yet to lower their weapons. “But you don’t look like one who values fairness.”
“Quite the contrary,” the blood-smelling man said. “There’s nothing I love better than a fair fight. That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about. I’d like to offer you a job.”
White Snake couldn’t have heard that right. “Do I look like I need a job?”
“You look like you need a lot of things,” the man replied, his dark eyes gleaming in the reflected light of the city across the water. “Fortunately for you, I can offer most of them. I can protect you from the rest of your kind. From your brother’s wrath. Protect you even from the spirit of the city herself. I can shelter you in your weakness until you are strong enough to stand on your own once more, and all I ask in return is a few evenings of your time.”
White Snake sank deeper into the mud, her glowing eyes flicking across the river. The DFZ’s undulating skyline was settling down at last, but she could already see dragons gathering on the roof of the Peacemaker’s consulate. Dragons who would be coming for her if she didn’t do something fast.
“I’m listening.”
***
“Sir?”
The man who smelled of blood turned away from the team of hired muscle hefting his newest star off the riverbank to glare at the mage kneeling on the road behind him.
“What is it, Kauffman?”
Andrej Kauffman winced at the coldness of his voice, but what else did the boy expect? He’d lost, and there was nothing more despicable than losers. If he hadn’t made himself so critical to the operation, he’d be dog food.
“I have the footage you requested,” the mage said, holding out his phone. “The dragon taken by the DFZ was indeed Yong of Korea, but my media team also managed to ID the girl riding on his back. As I suspected, it’s his adopted human daughter: Opal Yong-ae.”
“Opal, eh?” The man grabbed Kauffman’s phone to get a closer look at the grainy, zoomed-in picture on its screen. “Isn’t that the name of the Cleaner girl sniffing around my Mad Dog? The one he broke your face over?”
Kauffman’s newly reconstructed jaw ticked. “Yes, sir.”
The bloody man’s mouth split into a grin. “Tonight just gets better and better. If Yong and his brat have truly been eaten by the city, they’ll be in there for a while. The DFZ doesn’t surrender her prizes lightly. Meanwhile, Kos will be left on his own.” He tossed the phone back to Kauffman, who barely caught it. “Looks as if you’ve
