Flight from Hell by Yasmine Galenorn Page B

stopped writing notes and was staring at him.
    He cocked his head and flashed her a smile. “I leapt up on top of the desk, and as she lunged forward, I somersaulted over her head, turning to kick her one in the backside. Mind you, I don’t like hitting women—it goes against my nature—but when one has a big nasty pointy stick aimed at my heart, I’m not above defending myself.”
    â€œAs you should.” Camille shook her head. “I’ve got a feeling that she might not have been in control of her actions. From what you and Carter are both saying, it sounds like she’s being controlled in some fashion.”
    â€œWhether or not she was in control of herself, the fact remains she tried to dust me, and I’ll be damned if I let that happen. But you may be right. After I kicked her, I yelled for Ralph and Bette. Shimmer panicked. She screamed, “
No, no . . . I didn’t mean to do that . . .”
then raced out of the office. We haven’t seen her since then.”
    â€œHave you been to her apartment?” Camille shook her head as Delilah got busy with the pen again.
    â€œNo, love. Do I look like an idiot? I’ve been debating how to approach this. I don’t want to send Ralph or Bette—what if she attacks them, too? If I call in the Wing Liege, that’s it—she’ll go home and . . . they might kill her. I have called in some muscle to help protect the office from her, however.”
    â€œOgre?” Delilah glanced up at Alex, a faint grin playing on her lips. We all knew that Alex’s muscle wouldn’t be human.
    â€œNope. I have a friend who lives near here. Real character. He can animate the dead. He provided me with a couple ghouls and several bone-walkers, which are now stashed in the back.” Alex arched an eyebrow. “Hard to stop the undead, even for a dragon. Especially one who doesn’t have full use of her powers.”
    With a faint groan, Delilah put down her pen. “Your friend wouldn’t be a necromancer named Wilbur, by any chance, would he? Wilbur Folkes?”
    Alex cocked his head. “Yes, love. Why? You know him?”
    â€œOh, we know him all right. He’s our neighbor.”
    Alex grinned. “He and Martin come over once every couple weeks and play poker with Ralph and me and Bette.”
    Par for the course, I thought. It wouldn’t have surprised me if Ivana Krask, the Maiden of Karask, had also joined their little party. I pressed my lips together before a snide comment could slip out. But one look at Camille’s expression sent me into a peal of laughter. By the twisted smirk on her face, she had to be thinking the same thing.
    â€œAm I not getting your little joke?” Alex looked from her to me then back at her again.
    â€œNever mind. You don’t want to know. So . . . Where do we go from here?”
    My first inclination was to stay out of the whole mess. A fucked-up dragon running around Seattle was so not a good thing. Not only that, but we had to make tracks on the rogue vampire situation.
    But Camille nixed my idea in the bud. “Let’s talk to Bette, then we’ll go check out Shimmer’s apartment.” She glanced over at Delilah, who nodded.
    Knowing it would do no good to argue—and to be honest, I couldn’t ignore the fact that Carter’s girlfriend was in trouble—I caved.
    â€œOkay, let’s do this,” I said. “But first, Alex, can you tell us exactly what powers Shimmer still has available? We need to know what we’re dealing with. If she’s being controlled, we need to know exactly what we’re up against.”
    Alex crossed to one of the filing cabinets in his office and flipped through folders in the second drawer, pulling out a blue one. Taking a seat behind his desk, he rifled through the pages.
    â€œOkay, here we go. The punishment is temporary, effective as long