Free 'Til Dragons Do Us Part (Never Deal with Dragons) by Lorenda Christensen Page A

rooftop garrets to land gracefully a few feet from our position. He waddled toward us. Heavyset even for a dragon, the creature looked like he’d spent a few too many years on stationary guard duty, and not enough time exercising in the off hours.
    In perfect, unaccented dragonspeak, Cameron addressed the guard. “Dolgen, would you mind helping these ladies by moving this planter to—” he turned to Amanda. “Where did you want this moved?”
    My boss shook herself out of her frozen state to point to a small fountain resting on brick pavers near a bundle of rose bushes.
    “Thank you.” Cameron turned back to the dragon. “To the herb garden.”
    Dolgen bent his head in understanding, then grabbed the base of the planter with his front claws and lifted it—with no sign of struggle at all, tucking it easily into his left armpit. As he plodded toward the fountain with his load, he called over his shoulder in the low guttural tones of dragonspeak. “Is this the girl who broke in yesterday? Dan told me you had a hissy fit over someone letting her into the house unannounced.”
    Cameron glanced quickly in my direction before responding. “Yes. She works for the wedding planner. But I stand by my reminder to Dan. Trouble doesn’t always look like trouble when it shows up. From now on, we confirm identity before opening the gates. No matter how pretty the visitor happens to be.”
    The dragon nodded his agreement and set the stone pot onto the brick. “No arguments from me.” Dolgen eyed me critically. “Though I still don’t understand what makes this one pretty, and that one over there,” he pointed to Amanda, “plain. Is it just because that one is loud?”
    I had to focus hard not to allow a smile to crack my face, especially when he turned back to me for a second look. “This one is far too skinny for my taste. I could eat twelve of her and still be hungry.”
    “I think you could eat twelve of anything and still be hungry.” The words were out of my mouth before I even thought about it, and everyone, dragon and human alike, turned to stare at me.
    “You’re a dragonspeaker?” Cameron looked at me as if I’d just demonstrated that I could stick my elbow into my ear.
    Damn. This was why Simon handled any of the long-term undercover work. I had a habit of letting my mouth run without a filter, and I’d completely forgotten that I was Savannah Cavenaugh, clueless contract worker, and not Savannah Cavenaugh, girl who spent half her life with vocal cords that couldn’t form English words. Of course I’m a dragonspeaker. I’m a dragon.
    But that explanation wasn’t going to work. “Yeah. I had a few elective credits to spend my senior year of college.”
    Amanda was staring at me like I’d sprouted a new head, the two guards were grinning at me in delight, and Cameron was completely expressionless.
    For some reason, that made me defensive. “What? Is it a crime to want to expand my horizons?”
    “No,” Cameron said slowly, “but it is an odd way to use spare college credits. You never applied for a job at DRACIM?” He glanced back at Amanda.
    His insinuation being that DRACIM agents were generally paid
a
lot
better than the average wedding assistant. And probably had nicer bosses, too.
    “I had family stuff pop up right before I had to sit for my DRACIM exams, and I never got around to re-applying.” Pretty soon, I was going to need a second notebook to hold all my lies.
    “I need this one moved, too.” Plainly bored with our discussion, Amanda pointed to another concrete pot.
    “Fair enough. It looks like you have quite a bit of work to do before you’re ready for me to look over the area. If you’re comfortable playing translator, Savannah, I’ll leave you to it. Dolgen and Henry are at your disposal if you need anything else moved, and they can find me when you ladies decide how exactly we’re going to make this work. Once you have everything arranged how you want it, I’ll come back,