Page 20 of Dancing with My Elf
I summarized the investigation from the last two nights. “We didn’t find anything to warrant further investigation.”
“No traces of dark magic?” Pandora asked.
“No, nothing,” I replied.
After further discussion, Pandora said, “No point continuing at a dead end. Let’s get you back on patrol.”
That meant no more undercover opportunities at Lucas’s club. Despite how uncomfortable I’d been at first, after last night…
Stop thinking about last night. It was just a dance.
For Lucas, it was merely another night at work. Our few minutes meant nothing to him. He likely affected women like this every night, leaving them with moony expressions the next day.
Annoyed at my preoccupation with Lucas, I tapped my fingers on my thigh. “Any other developments?”
Pandora frowned. “We haven’t gotten any closer to finding a portal—if one exists.” She drummed her fingers on the hardwood of her desk. “Best-case scenario is that it was all a hoax.”
“Do you think that’s possible?”
“Anything’s possible,” Pandora replied. “The siren, Gianna’s mother, could have fabricated that story to see how Gianna would react. Would she go along with what they proposed? It all could have been to mask some other plan.”
We’d speculated various scenarios since we’d learned about this from Gianna. Unfortunately, that only got us so far.
I exhaled. “Considering there was an attempt to infiltrate the Network, that part of the siren’s story rings true.”
“Right.” Pandora nodded.
“Even so, what’s their end game?”
None of us were naïve enough to think that we’d scared the sirens and demons away for good.
Pandora grunted. “I hope we find out before it’s too late.”
Not only did we have no idea if the rumored portal was real, but we had no idea how much time we had before it was opened.
“We have to continue to take every threat seriously,” Pandora said. “Even if it stretches our already limited resources.”
Not an easy task. The more I circled the drain spinning down to burnout, the shakier my hold before I lost my grip and slipped.
Lucas
At the gym, I worked on my third set of bench presses and tried to shake Zoe from my head. Last night hadn’t gone as planned. Not only did she not invite me home with her, but I thought about her more than ever.
Would she return to the club tonight?
I took extra care of my body that day, just in case. After I showered and removed any unsightly body hair, I went to get my hair cut. Since I didn’t work until evenings, my days were generally free. I started most of them at the gym. After that, I enjoyed my free time. That might mean shopping for outfits, searching for a record album to add to my collection, working on new routines, or hanging around with Shadow or my roommates until it was time to go into the club. Many dragons treasured shiny objects, but I preferred to collect record albums, especially more obscure rock ones that were hard to find.
While having my hair cut, a petite brunette walked by the window of the barber shop. Was that Zoe? It had to be. How many women like her strutted about town with that purposeful stride? Zoe got under my skin, and I thought about her far too much. So, either it was her who just walked by, or I was now imagining seeing her. My dragon urged me to jump out of the chair and go after her.
I struggled to stay seated in the barber chair. She’d already consumed too much of my thoughts. I wasn’t going to run down the street after her with an asymmetric haircut. She’d think I was nuts. Maybe I was. That would explain this new fascination with her.
Just because my roommates had found partners, didn’t mean I had to settle for a monogamous relationship.
That had to be it—they’d infected me with their ailment. We’d have a chat about that when I was done here.
Once both sides of my hair were even, and I had the just long enough bad-boy style that the ladies loved, I returned home. Sebastian and Diego were playing a video game in the living room.
“Just the two I’ve been looking for.” I cracked my knuckles as I approached them.
