Free City of Dragons: Of Flesh and Blood by Adrienne Wilder Page A

sensation, Orin dragged a towel over his limbs and torso and forced himself to get dressed. By the time he had his shoes on, he decided he didn’t want Mary to come here tonight. The sins of what he’d done permeated the air, and no amount of Febreeze was going to kill it.
    He dialed her number as he headed up the sidewalk towards the Ancient Histories Building where he taught. He had absolutely no intentions of taking Mary inside, but it still seemed wrong to meet her there. Or maybe just unprofessional.
    Right before the phone clicked over to voicemail, she picked up. “Hey, I’m on my way.”
    “Change of plans.”
    “Oh?” The tone of her voice said she was scared he was going to back out. But ten more tons of self-loathing wouldn’t have kept Orin from tending her
need
.
    “Can we go to your place? If not, I can get us a hotel.”
    “Sure…no. I mean, my place is fine. Orin, is something wrong?”
Yeah. Everything about me is fucked up.
“No, nothing’s wrong. I just…”
I can’t do this at my house. Not tonight. Not after…
“I just don’t want to go home right now.” He knew Mary would know what he meant. While her hunger was intermittent, sometimes going weeks without a Rise, Orin was Kin and didn’t get a reprieve. And the hate of what he had to do was something she completely understood.
    After all, the depression and self-loathing had almost killed her after her Shift. In some ways her strength to face what she had become made Orin ashamed. She was so much stronger than he was.
    “Where do you want me to pick you up?”
“I’ll wait for you at the AH building. South end of the parking lot.”
    “Be there in five.”
    She made it there in a little less than four.
    Mary pulled up in her Taurus and gave Orin the passenger door. He did a quick look-see, but this area of campus was a long way off from the night life. The only place with any signs of movement was the coffee shop at the end of the block.
    Orin popped the door and climbed in.
    “Hey.” Mary’s beautiful lavender eyes hit Orin head on. And no matter how foul his mood was, he was powerless to stop the shit-eating grin from spreading across his mug.
    “Hey, yourself.” God of Man, he loved her smile.
    Mary put the car in drive, headed out of the parking lot, and joined the rest of the motor-driven herd easing up and down the sleepy streets.
    Athens likes to present itself as a typical small town, a regular Civil-War- meets- Starbucks kind of place. But unlike a lot of small Georgia cities, it doesn’t roll up the sidewalks come nightfall. On the contrary, when the sun dips below the horizon, the clubs get full and the parties churn out drunken frat boys like a Pez dispenser.
    And because most of the roads are nothing more than black-topped horse trails, traffic can be as debilitating as any big city street. Mary took a left off of Washington and headed down the neighborhood-laden side roads where street lamps made puddles of light in the yards of old twenties-style shotgun houses.
    Orin said, “So how have you been?”
    “Good, real good.” Orin knew Mary really meant she was dealing. But it was all any of them could do. The only other option was death; and while dying was a permanent solution, it simply wasn’t acceptable for either of them. “What about you?” Mary tossed him a quick look in the dark. Orin knew from personal experience her eyesight was better than Human.
    Not wanting to lie, he said, “I’ve had better days.”
    “Are you still having a good ole boy problem?”
    Orin laughed. He’d almost forgotten. Last time they’d met up, a couple of local rabble rousers decided to follow him home and do a little shit kicking. They were young and drunk, and it didn’t take much to scare them off. A flash of fang and a good old-fashioned growl. Only problem was they took off on foot and ran right out in front of one of the city buses.
    All three of them survived, but they’d walk with a limp. It had taken two