only i doubt he'd ever been near a boat in his life. sea dragons had no need for that mode of transport. not according to leith - a friend who was currently running a background check on dougall. and he should know, because he was a sea dragon himself.

angus came back with a beer in his hand and sat down. his gaze swept my face, lingering on the half-healed wound that snuck out from my hair to create a jagged line across half my forehead. once it was fully healed, it would be barely visible, but right now it was fucking ugly.

which was a small price to pay, considering the other option. tears touched my eyes and i blinked them away rapidly. now was not the time to grieve. i had far too much to do before i could give in to the pain and hurt and loss.

angus took a sip of his beer then said, "i wasn't actually expecting you to make it today. i thought you'd been in an accident?"

fear prickled my spine. i took a drink to ease the sudden dryness in my throat and wondered if he'd been behind the wheel of that truck. wondered just how safe i was in this bar, even with the dozen or so strangers around us.

"i was."

"you look okay."

"i am." my fingers tightened around the glass. "who told you about the accident?"

certainly i hadn't mentioned it when i'd finally received my possessions from the mangled car and had given him another call. in fact, i hadn't told anyone - although that hadn't stopped leith from ringing the hospital frantically to see if i was all right. but then, he had other methods of finding these things out.

angus shrugged. "i saw it mentioned in the chronicle."

if the chronicle had run an article on the accident, why hadn't they contacted me? i was, after all, one of their reporters. but i could sense no lie in his words or in his expression, and reading a newspaper had been the last thing on my mind when i'd awoken in hospital. for all i knew, he was telling the truth. yet there was a strange tension emanating from him, and that made me uneasy. i eased my grip a little on the glass and took a sip.

"i was also told you're draman," he continued.

meaning someone had been checking up on me. and given the accident, that couldn't be a good thing -

especially considering i wasn't exactly popular at home. i knew for a fact that many in my clique hoarded a grudge as avidly as they collected all things shiny - which was the reason behind my original move to san francisco.

it was entirely possible that one of those long-hoarded grudges was the reason behind rainey's death. after all, someone had given that deep-voiced man my cell phone number, and mom still lived within the clique's compound. she was extraordinarily trusting when it came to the dragons that she lived with and loved.

and just because i was presuming it was linked to our quest to discover the reason behind the death of rainey's sister didn't mean that it actually was.

and if i was wrong, then rainey would pay.

but i wasn't wrong. i felt that with every inch of my being.

"what does it matter to you what i am?" i asked, wondering if he, like many full dragons, held a grudge against those of us who weren't.

it was a sad fact that most full-bloods considered us a blight on the dragon name. in times past, it had been common practice amongst the dragon cliques to regularly cull the draman ranks. these days, such practices were outlawed by the dragon council, but i very much doubted it was done to protect us. the fact was, humans were encroaching on dragon land more and more, and mass cleansings - as they were called - were bound to attract notice sooner or later. it said something about the council's desperation to avoid human notice that they were allowing our numbers to increase.

but if angus was one of those dragons, then i wasn't entirely sure what my next step would be. i desperately needed the information he apparently had, but he was a sea dragon and a man besides. he had me bested in both strength and skill.

he took a sip of beer, his face giving little away. white froth briefly decorated his wiry beard before he wiped it away. "you're a member of the jamieson clique, aren't you?"

again that sliver of fear ran down my spine. maybe i'd stepped out of the frying pan and into the fire - and this wasn't the sort of heat i could control. not if things went wrong. "how do you know that?"

"because i'm not stupid enough to meet anyone without checking up on them first."

"and if you're inferring that i am, then you're mistaken." although he wasn't. not entirely.

a smile briefly touched his mouth before disappearing. "jamieson's one of the oldest ones, isn't it?"

i raised an eyebrow. "they're all old, simply because there are no new cliques. there haven't been, for hundreds of years."

the rogue towns certainly didn't count. not yet, anyway - although i had no doubt that the council would move on them sooner or later. they seemed to think the only way to stop the humans from discovering us was to rule us all with the iron fist of fear and retribution.

which is why rainey and i had thought that the council might be behind the cleansings of both stillwater and desert springs. but the clues weren't really adding any support to that.

angus took another sip of beer, then leaned forward, blue eyes wary as he said, "prove you are who you say."

"what? why?"

"because i need to be sure it's not a trap."

"why would you agree to meet me if you think it's a trap?" and why would he even think i was trying to trap him?

hell, even rainey wouldn't have tried something like that, and she'd had the full spectrum of dragon powers. but she'd also had a lot more respect for full-bloods, despite what we'd gone through growing up.

angus's smile had a bitter edge. "you ask that, two days after a serious accident that landed you in hospital and left your best friend dead?" he shook his head. "you'd be better off walking away right now, little draman."

he was probably right. i knew that, even if i had no intention of ever doing it. "i can't."

"even knowing you could be risking your life? these people aren't the type to let anyone off easily. we both bear the scars to prove that."

"what they've done has only strengthened my determination to track them down." tears welled and i blinked them away quickly, internally repeating the mantra that had become a theme for me this last day and a bit. don't think, don't feel. not until it was all over, one way or another. "and if you've got scars, where the hell are they?"

angus shoved an arm across the table and pushed up the sleeve of his shirt. his leathery skin was crisscrossed with a myriad of thickly healed wounds. "my whole body bears the evidence of their attack. they're not going to get a second shot."

my gaze jumped from the scars to his eyes, and i saw the glint of determination and fury there. and suddenly, i knew why he'd chosen this bar. not because it was a refuge for would-be sea dogs, but because it was close to the sea. which was his to call, like fire was for dragons. he'd drown everyone if he thought i was in any way here to trap him.

i blew out a breath, then said, "what do you want me to do?"

"if you are who you say you are, show me your stain and prove it."

the stain was a leathery, luminescent strip of skin that swirled around the spines of all dragons, whether they were of the air, sea, or a half-breed like myself. the colors varied depending on clique and parentage, but usually involved a myriad of iridescent colors. i'd never been able to shift shape and attain dragon form so, unlike most stains, mine was just a boring brown.

but there were only a few people who could know that - past lovers, my mom, and my brother.

neither my mom nor my brother would give out personal information like that, so that left past lovers. and while i could name a couple of those who'd delight in not only telling all but in getting back at me in any way possible, both of them had left the clique a couple of years before rainey and i had and, as far as i knew, had disappeared.

"i'm not stripping in public just to prove who i am." especially not in a bar filled with shadowy men who maybe weren't less-than-savory types, but who were still unknowns all the same.

and you never trusted an unknown. it was a motto that had saved my skin many a time growing up, and i wasn't about to abandon it now, no matter how badly i wanted information.

angus studied me for a moment, then said, voice still flat, "then dance fire across your fingertips. i'm told you have extraordinary control."

i frowned. i didn't like using dragon skills in public - in fact, not using them anywhere humans were likely to see them had been hammered into my brain since birth. there might be no humans currently in this bar, but there was nothing stopping them from walking in at the wrong moment. "why is this so important to you?"

"it's important because i've been caught unaware before and have paid the price for it." bleakness flared in his eyes, and his somewhat fierce expression was touched fleetingly with sadness. a sadness that tore at my heart, and made the reporter in me want to ask what was wrong. but i very much doubted he'd answer that question when he didn't even trust me with the information i was going to pay him for.

then the sadness was gone and he took another sip of beer before adding, in a voice that was edgy and sharp,

"and i've discovered the hard way that lies and entrapments fall from the prettiest tongue as easily as the ugliest."

"well, i hope i fall into the former group rather than the latter," i said, a little alarmed by the sudden fierceness in his tone. something was very off, but i wasn't sure what. then my gaze flicked to his arm. maybe his fierceness was understandable. with scars like those, survival must have been touch and go, even for a dragon who could heal far better than any human.

"do it," he said, "or i walk out of here now and you'll never get your answers."

i looked around the room, seeing no one looking our way or showing any undue interest. that might change given what i was about to do, but there wasn't much i could do about that. not if i wanted my answers.

if this guy could provide answers and wasn't just yanking my chain.

i mean, the voice on the phone that had given us this lead had been oddly familiar, and that alone had raised questions. but rainey had convinced me that we needed to take the chance if we were ever to get some answers. and now rainey was dead and i was here talking to a stranger who might not only be connected to her death, but who might well be here to trap me - the one who had escaped from their little "accident."

and while leith and his people were doing the background check on angus, i simply didn't have the time to sit back and wait for the answers. hence the reason i was here, taking this godawful chance.

i had no other choice if i wanted to save rainey.

i pushed the coke back then held up a hand, keeping it close to my chest so that there was less likelihood of everyone else noticing.

then i reached deep down into that place in my soul where the dragon resided. she came roaring forward in answer, heating my skin and making it tingle. but she was all flame and no substance, as usual. i focused on the energy burning through my body, controlling and restricting it, until it was little more than flickers of fire that danced joyfully across my fingertips.

few dragons could do that with their fire. most had full flame or nothing.

i met angus's gaze. "satisfied?"

he nodded, but oddly he didn't seem to relax. in fact, the tension that was knotting his shoulders and arms seemed worse than ever.

"so tell me," i added, "what you know about the cleansings."

he laced his fingers together, then leaned forward. "i know where the bodies are."