Dragons Luck

“Women, it always does seem to come down to that. One unbalanced of the mind, one frustrated of the heart. Neither is a solution card, so these are the end of this road, but not a full answer. You will be left wanting.”

“I repeat, so what else is new?”

“Nothing,” Rose said, and she stood.

Griffen took that as a cue and stood as well. She smiled and reached out, as if to brush her fingers over his cheek. Only they passed through with only a bare whisper of sensation. She had seemed perfectly solid before.

“Good luck, Griffen. I will probably see you before the end of all this. Oh, and would you tell those adorable little changelings something for me?”

“Sure. What?”

“That their child will be fey.”

With that, she and her table were gone. No one seemed to notice but him, but then no one had noticed them arrive. Griffen stood there and, with a frustrated sigh, rolled his eyes.

“Oh, sure, how am I supposed to work that into a conversation?!”

He was almost sure he could hear Rose’s laughter on the wind.

Forty-nine

All good ideas get screwed up in committee.

There were multiple reasons the conclave utilized speakers for each of the groups, and those representatives were not chosen at random. Simply put, some of the members of the conclave weren’t the sharpest. Not to mention well behaved.

Rumor already ran rampant among the lesser members attending. They debated back and forth constantly. Was Griffen guilty? Innocent? What would the speakers do either way? What should be done about the police? Most of those attending were concerned, and afraid. A few, though, found this to be the most exciting conclave ever, and were constantly playing devil’s advocate to keep the conversation flowing.

Within hours of the impromptu decision to investigate the murder independent of the police, everyone knew. No one quite knew how the rumor leaked so fast, though a few of the vampires were likely candidates. They had been stirring up the discussion and sitting back with happy smiles as the emotions flared.

However, Tail, whether he knew it or not, was part of what made it worse. He had, in effect, spoken for the shifters on how they could, or would, help such an investigation. It was a small thing, but he had gone over Jay’s head. Jay, the chosen representative. Any other time, it would have been no problem. But when things are unstable, a bubble of vacuum in the power structure, no matter how small, can be a catalyst.

Griffen didn’t know any of this. All he knew was he had been called in, again. And once again, he had to leave his home and rush over to deal with conclave matters. At four in the morning, because some young shifter had decked one of the garou.

Griffen nodded to the desk clerk, who looked dead on his feet and barely managed to wave. Then he braced himself and walked down to one of the conference rooms. Whether it was the hour, or some weeding had been done before he got there, he was happy to see that there were only about a dozen people in the room. Jay, Tink, Tail, and Kane were seated. He almost missed Tammy, who sort of huddled in one corner away from everyone. Standing at opposite ends of the room were a group of shifters and all of Kane’s garou. One of the garou, Kevin from the demonstration, had tissue stuffed up a nose that looked as if it had recently been broken. Griffen couldn’t tell at a glance who his opponent had been.

Small group or not, they all started talking at once as he came in. Except Tammy, who merely glared sullenly at him. It was loud enough, and he had enough lack of sleep that he almost shouted back, but figured it would only make his head throb more. Griffen waved them all silent.

Basking in the silence for a moment, he tried to decide who to ask for information. It wasn’t easy, tempers being what they were. Griffen was too tired to want to deal with any more unintended insults. He turned to the wounded garou, Kevin.

“What happened?” Griffen said.

“Got hit,” Kevin said.

Griffen fought the impulse to throttle the life out of him.

“A little more detail please,” Griffen said.

“Well, we was talking about the investigation. And he said we couldn’t do it. Said we needed some fairy to bail us out.”

Griffen blinked and tried to rub some of the sleep from his eyes.

“What investigation?”

Kevin looked at him as if he were crazy.

“Us findin’ out who killed Slim, of course,” he said.

“I done tol’ you, ain’t gonna be done dat way,” Kane said.

“You mean it’s true!? You trust the fairies instead of your pack?” Kevin said, shocked.

“No, it ain’t like dat, boy . . .” Kane said.

One of the shifters, whom Griffen didn’t know, spoke up.

“How come Tail is talking for us now? Why is he stepping on Jay’s toes and keeping us out of things?”

“I only said that we aren’t trackers like that,” Tail said.

“Which we?!” another shifter demanded.

“Packless riffraff,” one of the garou muttered.