"They all enjoy money. Why not simply offer her a fee?" Vadriq asked. He pulled out a knife and sliced a piece of meat from the lamb's ribcage. It dripped broth into the pit, droplets skittering across the surface of the fire to melt into it a second later.
Iyadre settled down beside me. "Because you don't just walk up to some low-level human worker and throw a briefcase full of money at them."
"We used to."
I waved that away, impatient. "Three hundred years ago. Things have changed. You work at a mechanic shop. You don't understand."
"It's why I work at a mechanic shop. Fixing things? Easy. Dealing with all the red tape the rest of you do?" Vadriq shook his head. "Break into the place and steal them. Hire those corvid shifters to do it. The crows and the ravens are made for that kind of work."
No matter how much I loved him, it was if he was of a one-track mind. He had spent the past five hundred years preferring to work with his hands rather than attempting to migrate into an ever-changing society. The humans he spent his time with were a different sort than those Nariti, Iyadre, and I were constantly in contact with.
Sometimes, I wondered if he was too far from my world. We had little enough to discuss on dark nights and I worried that he was drawing back from me. Yet he was passionate enough when mating that I doubted it. The constant upheaval was a tedious thing, one that I would have done without.
"You are oversimplifying the problem. The corvids would do no better than the feline shifters or we, ourselves. If Hudson were willing to do more, it would be a wonderful thing," I said.
Vadriq frowned. "You spring his mate at the Meet a year or so back and he's not willing to play ball?"
I shifted in my seat. "Perhaps I spoke roughly to him."
"Eskal put his foot in his mouth," Nariti said. "Hudson told me you called Sadie something rude but he wouldn't repeat it."
I snorted. "I wouldn't say it was rude. True, perhaps. A truth he dislikes does not make it any less true and I am not about to lie for him to make him feel better about his life."
"Eskal was rude to the Fontaines about their mate and, well, I'm sure you know how it went over," Nariti continued.
I scowled at him, but Iyadre spoke up before I could open my mouth. "Little surprise there. Sadie was a dark spot on his judgment record. Anyone would be irritable about that situation."
"Never once did I say I was irritable about the new omega bitch," I said. "If we may concentrate on our own problems rather than those of the wolves?"
Silence fell again. Nariti removed the lamb from the spit, his draconic paws more than capable of dealing with the heat from the fire pit. He placed it on a serving platter and, as the others dug in, I considered it. The witch, Olivia, was little more than a lamb waiting to be brought to slaughter by her overseers. They would be done with her one day. It was how companies operated; they allowed individuals to grow close to them only for the chance to throw them away when the individual was no longer useful.
Perhaps I could grease those rails somewhat, set the act in motion. If I interfered with her job, she would need the money we could offer. Yes, it was close to blackmail, but I wasn't above such a thing if it meant the safety of my much younger, egg-bound siblings.
They were the only hope our flight had left.
Nix that; she was the only hope our flight had left, and I had to think of some manner in which to tempt her. Causing her employment to flux would be one thing, forcing her to accept our assistance would be another. I ran my claw-tipped fingers over the armrest of my vinyl chair and smirked as a lightbulb sparked to life inside of my mind.
With the problem resolved, so far as I was concerned, I got up and joined the rest of my wingmates in the feast, shifting as I went. It ruined my clothing, but what of it? I had a dozen other ensembles, and the one I had been wearing was an old and less fashionable type than it should have been.
Besides that, I knew I would catch Vadriq's attention when I shifted back.
The day had been long, hard, and uncomfortable. I deserved someone warm, soft, and sweet.
Together, we four dragons devoured the sheep. There were no bones, no innards left when we finished. The dragon is a carnivore by nature, and we have no reason to fight what we are. It was a sensible meal for us and would leave us full when we shifted back to our human bodies. Yet, as a breath of cold air washed over us and killed the flickering embers, the night called to me.
I leapt into the darkness, wings slashing through it to keep me aloft. Up and up I climbed, neck stretched toward the clouds above. A quick circling of the neighborhood was in poor taste, especially after I had cautioned Nariti, but I was a black as the space around me and even the most well-sighted human would have trouble spotting me.
Nariti, on the other hand, was a giant blue boulder lying on a green lawn next to an open, flaming pit. Astronauts could have seen him from the moon.
The humans were more or less asleep in their hovels, the remnants of their dinners marinating in their trash
