Kissed by Fire by Shéa MacLeod Page B

it open. Thank the gods I was still fully dressed.
That could have been embarrassing.
    “You look like crap.” Kabita eyed me up and
down.
    “Gee, thanks.” I staggered into the bathroom
and, sure enough. I looked like crap.
    My skin was pasty, my eyes bloodshot and my
hair looked like a rat had slept in it. As if that weren’t bad
enough, I hadn’t taken off my makeup before going to bed. I had all
the sex appeal of a zombie raccoon.
    “I need a shower. Can you wait?”
    She shrugged and sat down at the desk.
“Better make it quick if you want breakfast. Dex is picking us up
for the funeral in an hour.”
    Damn. I’d forgotten about the funeral.
Sometimes I was the worst friend. “Give me fifteen minutes.”
    It was more like twenty, but I managed to
shower, slap on some makeup and blow dry my hair. A couple minutes
after that I was in clean clothes and we were out the door.
    I’d brought a black dress for Alison’s
funeral. It was what people did in England. They did not show up in
jeans and T-shirts. I wasn’t a big fan of dresses, but sometimes
you had to go with what was right, not what was comfortable. Even
when it came to fashion. Though I refused to wear one of those
ridiculous hats women were so fond of wearing to such
occasions.
    It was a simple wrap dress with mid-length
sleeves and a hemline that hit just below the knees. I had to admit
it showed off my curves really well, but was still modest enough I
wouldn’t look like I was trawling at the funeral. In concession to
being a Hunter and the weather, I’d kept my knee high boots and the
few weapons I could hide. I doubted we’d have any trouble of the
supernatural variety at the funeral, but one can never be too
careful.
    Kabita was wearing a form fitting black dress
with a black bolero jacket over the top. It looked good on her.
Unlike me, she’d bowed to convention with a pair of high heels.
Kabita’s feelings on high heels were similar to mine. She must have
caught me staring at them because she gave me a little smile.
“Silver alloy knives inside the heels.”
    “Nice. Did Tessalah work those up?” Tessalah
was a freaking genius when it came to weaponry. I got all my
weapons from her and was always happy to give her a hand by trying
out prototypes.
    “Of course. She’s got a really nice line of
heels now. You should have a look. There’s a killer pair of purple
stiletto gladiators.”
    I practically salivated at that. Again, I was
so not a fan of heels, but I would totally make an exception for
purple stiletto gladiators. Who wouldn’t?
    Dex was waiting out front with the car, so we
both slid into the back. “Hey Dex,” I said with a little smile. I
was tempted to make some kind of stupid joke about him chauffeuring
us but figured it was inappropriate.
    “Good morning, ladies. You’re both looking
lovely today.” Dex smiled at us in the rear view mirror as he
pulled into London traffic.
    The ride was a quiet one. I guess we all had
things to think about. I imagined Dex and Kabita were thinking
about their cousin. I was thinking about Alison, too, but for a
different reason.
    Thanks to the vast number of crime shows on
TV these days, it was a pretty well known fact that murderers often
showed up at the funerals of their murder victims. Sometimes it was
out of guilt, sometimes because they liked to see the damage they’d
caused.
    I ran my fingers over the smooth scale I’d
tucked into the pocket of my dress. If the murderer was really a
dragon, did that change things? It wasn’t like a dragon could show
up at a funeral in broad daylight. Someone was bound notice. I gave
a wry smile at the thought of a giant lizard with wings suddenly
appearing in the middle of London.
    I still wasn’t entirely convinced Alison had
been murdered by dragons. Things just didn’t add up. I only hoped
Alister didn’t go all Exterminator. He had seemed perfectly happy
to blame the dragons until I pointed out the little flaws in his
theory. Even then,