Chapter 5 #2
A dripping sound accompanied his boots against Medwin’s clean floor tiles. I almost didn’t look out into the kitchen, but then I did. A dark-haired head hung casually from his fist. I swallowed hard. How many heads did this man go around taking?
“They had someone tailing you,” Volex said and plunked the head down into an empty casserole dish setting on the counter. “Probably wouldn’t have killed you, but they would’ve reported back to them. Not taking any chances with that bullshit. I’m too old for all these espionage games.”
“I’m not eating that!” the words escaped my mouth before I could stop them.
Both of the other dragons laughed, and it was as if I shrank back to being a teenager who missed some of the dirty jokes thrown around by adults. They were so causal about the heads and the deaths. Had I stepped out of the lair of the monsters I knew and into the nest of another set of them?
“No,” Volex rolled his eyes. “And before you ask, we’re on a link because you descend from my grandfather too through the line of my sire. We’re family. I’m just better at keeping my thoughts to myself from all you hatchlings running around.”
“I’ll grab another tub from the closet,” Medwin said, heading out of the kitchen.
“After that you want me to make myself scarce for a while so you can sex up your guy?” Volex asked, winking at me.
I almost melted down into the kitchen tiles, but the trail of blood droplets stopped me. Why was everyone suddenly so casual with talking about their sex lives and asking about ours?
“You can clean up your mess. Sheesh! Why’d you bring it through the bedroom without a bag? There is blood on the carpet!”
“Nothing a little cold water and dragoxy won’t get out, Smokey. Don’t you worry about that. You worry about getting him ready for what we have to do,” Volex nodded at me.
“What’s that?” I asked, pretty sure I didn’t want to know the answer.
“Clary, can I call you Clary? I’m gonna call you Clary because you haven’t grown into that huge name they gave you yet.
It’s not just guys like the tail and the wizard we’re going to have to take care of if we’re going to save Moonscale London and put you on the proverbial throne.
There will be more heads and more blood and some of it might be ours.
You can sit back and play the pretty boy if you want.
We’ve done all the dirty work so far and we’re getting better at it every time it comes down to the wire.
That’s fine. As long as you’re going to be a decent ruler, Smokey can enforce the laws and take out assholes.
I’ll be around for a while too. Pras too.
But as much as I hate to say it there will come a time when you have to get your hands dirty – no, scratch that.
You’ll have to get your hands bloody, and I don’t think the first time should be your parents.
I could train you to fight all day every day for the next ten years and it will not prepare you to watch the light leave someone’s eyes when they die.
Not even if they’re an asshole that the whole planet is better off without.
Now multiply that by the fact you wouldn’t be standing there to fight if not for the people you need to kill. ”
I didn’t even know which part of his little, antihero monologue to address first. I wasn’t afraid to get my hands dirty.
I’d been in my fair share of bar fights.
I was a dragon after all and all the rage inside me would take me over the finish line when the time came to send my parents through their final doors.
“Oh, really?” he arched a brow, picking up my thoughts again as Medwin dropped the casserole dish and the head into a new plastic tub.
“If my father told me he was a serial rapist I’d kill him on the spot or die trying.
I love that man. I aspire to be as great as him, but I’d cut him down without a second thought.
There would be consequences sure, but life is one big, long string of consequences and not acting has even more than acting most of the time. ”
“Volex!” Medwin chided him.
“Smokey, relax. I’m not saying he’s a criminal.
I’m not saying he’s even morally grey. It’s worse than that, babycakes.
He’s in shock and it makes him freeze. If you don’t break him of that, you’ll be a widower before you ever even get to claim him.
I don’t want to have to knock your scaly ass out because you go into an unrestrainable rage at losing him. ”
My mate smelled like a man who was not thrilled about being called ‘babycakes’ but he also smelled like a dragon who thought Volex had a point.
“I’m right here! You don’t have to talk about me like I’m not,” I retorted.
“Give him some sex or something to bring him back down,” Volex shrugged, taking the tub from him and carrying it into the walk-in. “Maybe put your dick up his ass and see if that wakes him up.”
Medwin let out a huff and waved away the puff of smoke that shot from his nose. He was annoyed with Volex, but it was the way people get annoyed with people they like or respect. He wasn’t going to tell Volex what’s what.
“Right message, wrong delivery,” Medwin said when Volex rejoined us in the kitchen.
“I’m just saying, Smokey,” Volex smirked.
“His emotions are his to manage but sometimes we take on responsibilities that aren’t ours because we don’t want to see people die.
Like the night I saved you from your suicide mission.
Anyway. I’m going to go scout around town for a bit.
I’ll come back through the front door because I don’t want to see you two sexing each other up. ”
“Thanks, Volex,” Medwin said as he walked out of the kitchen.
There was no ‘sexing each other up’ after Volex left but there was a shower and a cuddle. We talked in circles about everything I knew and didn’t know.
“Are there any other heads I should know about?” I asked him.
“Not in the house and you probably don’t need to know about them,” Medwin said.
“I know it seems barbaric but it’s the fastest way to kill them.
More humane than a lot of people get after Roster is finished with them.
” He was silent for a long moment. “Do you want to take a nap?” he yawned.
“I haven’t been sleeping well since Alrick died.
He was a good guy. Fucked up from what happened but what dragon in Moonscale London isn’t fucked up these days? ”
I almost asked if Delin knew about his parents but thought better of it.
Sure, I needed to know he was okay, but a nap sounded nice.
I gave Medwin a kiss on his forehead and pulled him in close.
A nap wouldn’t solve anything, but it might just give our brains the much-needed break to bring together a more coherent plan.
***Notes from Medwin: For the sake of transparency, Clarence’s reaction to the heads was much louder than he described in this chapter.
He wasn’t nearly as put together as it seems here.
No one is the first time they see a head in a freezer or freshly dripping life blood onto clean kitchen tiles.
I would’ve been suspicious if he reacted with so much composure that first time.
Also, Volex’s language was much more eloquent and raunchy than my mate is willing to put into writing.