Lupi 04 - Night Season

time. “Come in, but don’t go in the bathroom.”
    That sent the eyebrows up. Cynna ignored that, grabbed her denim tote and her jacket from the pile of clothes on the bed. “I sure do need to wash clothes,” she said brightly. “Let’s go. Oh, one more thing. No one is to say the p-word this afternoon, or allude to it in any way.”
    Lily nodded thoughtfully. “Okay. No allusions to the p-word.”
    Wow. That was easy. Should have tried that a month ago and spared herself any number of gentle, tactful, or blunt interventions. Lily had been so sure Cynna wasn’t facing reality.
    Turned out Lily was right. The bitch. “So where are we going?” Cynna asked as they headed down the hotel hallway to the side exit.
    â€œI thought we’d give the Fashion Center a try.”
    â€œSure. Uh…do they have those snooty clerks who look at you like you’re about to boost a pair of panty hose?”
    Lily gave her a look. “How long have you lived in D.C.?”
    â€œSeven years. Why?”
    â€œThe Fashion Center is a mall. They’ve got all kinds of clothing stores—Macy’s, Talbot’s, The Gap, Kenneth Cole—”
    â€œSo I don’t shop much. So sue me.”
    Lily patted her arm. “You will today.”
    That’s what she was afraid of. Whatever had possessed her to ask Lily to help her pick out some new things?
    She glanced down at the woman beside her and sighed. Envy, that’s what. Lily always looked right . But she was tiny and…well, not cute. You wouldn’t call a bullet cute, no matter how small and shapely it was. Bullets were also notoriously hard to stop, and that was like Lily, too.
    And now, because Cynna had opened her big mouth, all that deadly determination was focused on her wardrobe. She’d actually used that word when she talked to Lily about helping her shop. A new wardrobe, she’d said. For work.
    Clearly she’d been insane. She didn’t have a damned wardrobe. She had clothes.
    They left through the side door. Cold sucked at Cynna’s face and made inroads along her front, so she zipped her jacket. It was an unusually cold winter for D.C., but she wasn’t about to say so. It was too much fun needling Lily, who’d lived in San Diego all her life.
    Lily grumbled under her breath and headed for her car—a plain white Ford exactly like Cynna’s, only cleaner. The FBI must buy the things in droves.
    The day was as sunny and still as it was cold, the sun a bright ball in a sky so blue and clear you’d think smog had never been invented. So when the shadow passed overhead, Cynna looked up.
    The sinuous shape was growing familiar, though she still felt a chill of awe at the sight. Against the brightness of the sky it looked dark, but she’d seen the photographs. Who hadn’t? Up close the scales would be red and shiny, the color of rubies or fresh blood.
    â€œIs vanity a dragon thing?” she asked, one hand on the car door, her head tipped back to watch legend crawl lazily across the sky.
    Lily opened her door. “What do you mean?”
    â€œAll the photos. Mika doesn’t talk much, but he sure likes getting his picture taken.” Technically, Mika didn’t talk at all. Mindspeak wasn’t the same as talking. But the ruby dragon seldom bothered to speak in any manner to the humans around him, much to the frustration of reporters. “Is Sam vain like that?”
    Lily snorted. “Haven’t seen a bunch of photos of him on the Internet, have you? I guess if you already know you’re the biggest, baddest dude on two wings, you don’t need a picture to prove it. Mika’s young,” she added as she got in.
    Young was a relative term, but since Mika had probably been born before a passel of Pilgrims washed up on a big rock near Plymouth, Cynna thought Lily was stretching the limits of the word.
    But dragons stretched a lot of limits.
    For years people had believed they were myth, fairy tale, no more real than Odysseus’s Cyclops. Even when twenty-two of them ended their long exile last November to return to Earth, it had been easy for people to dismiss the sighting since they’d vanished right away.
    Probably some publicity stunt, right? It happened in California, and much of the country considered that explanation enough for any oddity. Since the government sat on its information—which included radar, both