The elevator to the penthouse always moved too slowly for my taste, especially after a day spent arguing with beings who considered themselves above human concerns. Thirty-eight floors gave me too much time to think about failure and about the growing list of supernatural assholes who seemed determined to make my life complicated once again.

  I triggered the tiny earpiece deeper into my ear canal and spoke quietly. "Holly, reading an arm from out your way, you still there?"

  "Always am," came the familiar voice, tinged with the slight electronic distortion that meant she was routing through multiple encrypted channels. "Little busy with visitors, but always time for you, sweetie. How'd it go with our pointy-eared friends?"

  "About as well as you'd expect." I watched the floor numbers climb with practiced patience. "They're more concerned about maintaining their own council than helping us get Lisa back. Apparently, they are going to take matters into their own hands… going to get our girl killed, and I won’t let that stand. Need help with your thing?

  Holly's snort carried clearly through the connection. "Pompous bastards. And don’t worry about me, you’re my first call if things get out of hand. What's the backup pn?"

  "Working on it. I need you to dig deeper into Pyraxes's ir. There has to be another way in besides the main entrance. Old subway tunnels, storm drains, anything that connects to that warehouse district she's cimed."

  "Already on it. Give me a few hours to hack into the city pnning database. Those records go back to the 1800s, so there might be something the dragon doesn't know about."

  The elevator chimed softly as it reached the penthouse floor. "Good. And Holly? Start looking into heavier ordnance. If the elves won't help, we might need to get creative."

  "Define creative."

  "The kind that makes rge holes in very tough scales."

  “Oh, you did not just take down my cameras!” I could hear the keyboard ccking wildly in the background. “Call you back when I got something, Hunter.”

  She ended the connection as the elevator doors slid open, revealing the familiar luxury of my home. The penthouse at the Pierre had cost me more than most people made in a decade, but it came with advantages that no amount of money could buy elsewhere: privacy, security, and most importantly, a ndlord who asked no questions about unusual modifications to the premises.

  "Dad!" Kelly's voice carried from the living room, bright with genuine pleasure. She was still young enough to be excited when I came home, though old enough to worry about what I did when I was away. "How was your business trip?"

  I put on my best smile. Kelly was the one purely good thing in my life, the reason I had taken high-paying jobs for years to secure her future. She sat curled up on the oversized sofa, ptop banced on her knees, probably working on homework or one of her digital art projects. Six months living here, and I realized I barely knew what she did to pass the time. I would change that once Lisa was safe.

  "Productive," I said, which wasn't entirely a lie. Learning that the elves were jerks was information, even if it wasn't the information I'd wanted. "How was school?"

  "Same as always. Mr. Peterson is still trying to convince me that calculus will be useful in real life, and Jessica is still convinced that her boyfriend is a vampire because he wears a lot of bck eyeliner." Kelly looked up from her ptop with the expression of someone who'd learned to find humor in the mundane. "I didn't have the heart to tell her that real vampires have much better fashion sense. Think I’ll ever meet one?"

  That was his daughter, too smart for her own good and dangerously interested in the supernatural world despite my best efforts to keep her sheltered. But some exposure was inevitable. Better that she know enough to stay safe than stumble into danger through ignorance. Wasn’t going to let that happen again.

  "Speaking of which," Kelly continued, closing the ptop and giving me her full attention, "there's something weird happening downtown. Social media is full of posts about some kind of explosion near the industrial district. Lots of smoke, emergency vehicles, the usual chaos. But some of the videos show... well, they show things that don't look entirely human."

  "What kind of things?"

  "Big things. Moving in ways that don't match normal body mechanics. And there are reports of a police transport being attacked by what witnesses are calling 'unknown assaints.'" Kelly's expression grew more serious. "Is this going to be one of those situations where you have to go back out tonight?"

  Before I could answer, the building's security system chimed softly, someone at the private elevator, requesting access. I gnced at the monitor built into the wall and saw a familiar figure: a woman with dark hair and tired eyes, still wearing what looked like street clothes hastily pulled on.

  "Expecting company?" Kelly asked.

  "Not exactly."I pressed the access button. "But I have a feeling this is about those 'unknown assaints' you mentioned."

  Three minutes ter, Detective Mara Soto stepped out of the elevator looking like someone who'd had the worst day of her career. My annoyance at how the elevator ride seemed so much shorter for her dissipated when I saw her. Her clothes were wrinkled, there was a faint smell of smoke clinging to her, and my experienced eye caught the subtle signs of recent injury, the way she favored her left side, the controlled movements that spoke of someone trying not to aggravate bruised ribs.

  "Hunter," she said, her voice carrying the kind of exhaustion that came from having your world turned upside down. "We need to talk."

  "Figured as much." I gestured toward the living room. "Kelly, come meet someone. Mara Soto, meet my daughter, Kelly. Mara's a police detective, and unless I'm very much mistaken, she's also a werewolf who just had a very bad encounter with something nasty."

  Kelly's eyes lit up with fascination. "Really? A werewolf? That's so cool! Can you transform at will, or is it tied to lunar cycles? Do you have enhanced senses in human form? Do you,"

  "Kelly," I chided gently. "Maybe let Detective Soto catch her breath before the twenty questions."

  Mara smiled despite everything. "It's fine. And yes, I can transform at will, yes to enhanced senses, and the lunar cycle thing is mostly Hollywood nonsense. Full moons make the change easier, but they're not required."

  "That is so much cooler than vampires with fashion sense," Kelly said, settling back onto the sofa with obvious delight. "I've read about lycans, but I've never met one before. Well, not knowingly."

  "Your daughter is remarkably well-informed," Mara observed, taking the seat I offered.

  "Tell me about it, scares the crap out of me." I poured myself three fingers of bourbon from the bar cart, trying not to think of the danger just ousid00e our door would be to Kelly, then raised an eyebrow at Mara. "Drink?"

  "God, yes. Whatever you're having."

  I poured a second gss and handed it over. "So. Transport attack. Unknown assaints. And judging by your expression, at least one of those assaints was someone you know personally."

  Mara took a sip of bourbon and closed her eyes briefly. "His name is Riven. He's my Rauk, the lycan who turned me, years ago. He showed up in custody today, got me suspended, and then was broken out."

  "Ambush suggests pnning. What kind of backup did he have?"

  "A were-elephant. Massive, old, strong enough to flip an armored transport van like it was a toy car. And a were-cheetah, built for speed and killing.” She paused… I could see the fight on her face. “And some… magic… fuckery that froze me in pce… couldn’t move a muscle after that bastard said stop.”

  Kelly looked between us, her earlier excitement repced by concern. "That sounds seriously dangerous. Can't you just avoid him?"

  "Not if he's pnning something bigger," Mara said. "And I think he is. This wasn't random, Kelly. He let himself get arrested, pnned the ambush, and had allies in pce. He's building toward something, and I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to be part of it."

  I was quiet for a long moment, staring into my bourbon. "Mara, I'd love to help you hunt down your wayward maker and his merry band of ancient lycans. Really, I would. But I've got a more immediate problem."

  "What kind of problem?"

  "Lisa’s gone and got herself captured by a dragon… bunch of pain the my rear, elves gathering an army. Going to be messy, bloody, and she’s caught right in the middle."

  "A dragon," Mara repeated, as if testing the words. "In the middle of the city."

  "Pyraxes, the Crimson Death. Lovely personality, breath that can melt steel, and a territorial instinct that makes grizzly bears look reasonable." I finished my bourbon in one swallow. "Dragon almost melted me into a puddle as soon as it saw me. Didn’t seem to be one much for conversation. Though why it’s keeping Lisa alive, I don’t know."Kelly frowned. "You can’t just leave her there, either…"

  The building's entire structure shuddered suddenly, a deep vibration I felt in my bones. Emergency lighting flickered on as the main power grid fluctuated, and somewhere in the distance, car arms began wailing.

  "What was that?" Kelly said, moving to the windows that looked out over Central Park.

  I was already moving, I didn’t need to see what was headed this way with all the subtlety of Mr Stay Puff, I went straight for the concealed panel that would activate the building's enhanced security systems. But before I could reach it, the penthouse's reinforced windows exploded inward in a shower of gss and fme.

  The dragon forcing its head through the bay windows into the penthouse was all too familiar to me. Pyraxes the Crimson Death was a creature of living fme and molten gold, with scales that shifted between deep red and bright orange depending on how the light hit them. Her wings, now folded against her serpentine body, showed tears from previous battles, but her yellow eyes burned with intelligence and fury.

  "I can smell you in there, little rat," the dragon said, her voice like the sound of steel being forged. "Hunter of monsters, killer of my kind. You thought you could hide in your tower of gss and steel?"

  I grabbed Kelly, pulling her away from the ruined windows as Mara shifted into a protective crouch, her form already beginning to blur at the edges as she prepared to transform.

  "Kelly, get to the safe room. Now." My voice carried the authority of someone used to being obeyed in crisis situations, admittedly this was a little out of my comfort zone.

  "But Dad,"

  "Now!"

  To Mara, he said, "Can you keep her safe while I handle this?"

  "Yes," Mara replied, her voice already deepening as the change began. "But Hunter, that thing is huge."

  "I've fought bigger." It was a lie, but a useful one. "Just keep Kelly alive. Everything else is secondary." I looked at Mara, trying to convey to her silently how important this was.

  The dragon's head swiveled toward them, nostrils fring as she sorted through the scents in the room. "Werewolf. How interesting. And a child." Her expression grew thoughtful. "Perhaps this won't be as simple as I thought."

  She breathed fire then, not at them but at the far wall, where my collection of books and artifacts was housed. Fmes washed over priceless grimoires and irrepceable relics, reducing centuries of accumuted knowledge to ash in seconds.

  "You have taken from me, human, I know it," Pyraxes continued, prowling further into the room with surprising grace for something so rge. "I can sense it, even if I cannot see it. Return what was stolen, and perhaps I will make your death swift."

  I backed toward the staircase that led to the penthouse's second floor, keeping myself between the dragon and the others. "I don't know what you're talking about."

  "Liar." The dragon's tail shed out, smashing through a priceless antique table like it was made of balsa wood. A wicked cw swiping at me, but not reaching the stairs. The massive lizard pulled out from the window, beating wings echoing in the night as she rose higher outside the building.

  "Pyraxes, listen to me,"

  "I am done listening to the words of thieves and murderers!"

  She breathed fire again, this time directly at him. I dove up the stairs, feeling the heat sear the air where he'd been standing. Behind him, he could hear Kelly's voice calling his name, and Mara's growl as she completed her transformation.

  The second floor of the penthouse housed my private museum, trophies, weapons, and tools collected from over twenty years of supernatural problem-solving. I reached for a hidden lever behind one of the dispys as I heard the dragon nd on the balcony outside, its weight crunching through the stonework as its cws destroyed the flimsy doorway separating us.

  My finger found the emergency release, and panels in the ceiling slid open with mechanical precision. Weapons dropped on motorized cables, firearms designed specifically for supernatural threats, ammunition that cost more per round than most people's monthly sary, and tools that existed in the gray area between military hardware and magical artifact.

  I grabbed the M240 machine gun first, a weapon modified with blessed silver rounds and inscribed with protective wards along the barrel. The weight of it felt reassuring in his hands as I took position at the top of the stairs.

  "All right, Mushu!" I called down. "This is your st chance to walk away!"

  Her ughter sounded like a forge bellows. "Bold words from a thief cowering on his perch."

  She unched herself upward, wings spreading in a show of size and force that was terrifying to observe. I opened fire, the heavy rounds stitching across her wing membranes and drawing golden blood, but barely slowing her advance.

  The dragon hit the building like a living battering ram, her weight splintering the reinforced flooring and sending me stumbling backward. One wing caught him across the chest, sending him flying into a dispy case that held the preserved head of a Romanian vampire he'd killed in '08.

  Through the ringing in my ears, I could hear Mara's wolf form engaging the dragon's rear fnk, trying to distract it from going after Kelly. The sound of cws on scales mixed with Pyraxes's roars of frustration. She was clearly stronger than the werewolf, but Mara was faster and smart enough to stay mobile.

  I rolled to my feet and grabbed the next weapon from my emergency stash, an RPG-7 uncher that had been blessed by three different religions and loaded with enough ordinance to level your average city block. Overkill for most situations, but dragons weren't most situations.

  "Here, lizard, lizard!" I shouted. "Try this on for size!"

  Pyraxes turned toward me just as I pulled the trigger. The rocket streaked across the ruined penthouse, trailing smoke and the scent of ozone. It hit the dragon’s center mass and exploded in a brilliant fsh that lit up the New York skyline.

  When the smoke cleared, Pyraxes was still standing, though she looked considerably more battered. Golden blood dripped from numerous small wounds, and one of her wings hung at an awkward angle. But more importantly, she was looking at me with something that might have been respect.

  "Impressive," she admitted, her voice slightly hoarse from the explosion.

  The dragon studied him for a long moment, then gnced around the destroyed penthouse as if seeing it clearly for the first time. Her expression grew thoughtful. Without another word, Pyraxes unched herself through the ruined windows and into the night sky, her wings carrying her over Central Park and toward whatever ir she'd cimed in the city's depths.

  In the sudden silence that followed, I became aware of several things simultaneously: the building's fire suppression system was flooding the penthouse with chemical retardant, his insurance premiums were about to go through the roof, and Kelly was standing in the ruins of what had been our living room with an expression of profound skepticism.

  "So," my daughter said, her voice dry with the kind of sarcasm that reminded me uncomfortably of her mother, "security consultant, eh, Dad?"

  DaritanX