The Rooftop of Dave's Fish and Strips, Baltimore, Saturday Evening

[arboreal_priestess]

Between the fight and then taking care of Liam while he had been...indisposed, yesterday had been a something of a whirlwind, giving Verity little time to think. But after a good night's sleep, a phone call home to her family, and a fair bit of reading, she was starting to come to terms with the possibility that there really was a dragon hibernating under Baltimore. A dragon. If this were true, this was probably the only dragon in existence; common knowledge was that they'd gone extinct before the Revolutionary War.

And yet, here she was, flipping through all the documentation her dad could email, possibly about to discover a no-shit-for-reals dragon. And with her family convinced to stay in Oregon for the time being, she had a no-shit-for-reals dragon all to herself.

Verity paused in the act of plugging her phone into the charger. She had the possible dragon all to herself. Perversely appealing as that thought was, it also wasn't fair. If there was even the slightest chance that the dragons weren't extinct, there were some people who needed to know about it.

The dragon princesses.

This was an exciting discovery for cryptozoologists, the kind that would go down in history. But for dragon princesses, this was the whole reason for their existence. No one knew exactly what ecological niche the dragon princesses had filled for the great dragons of old, but whatever it was, they sure weren't filling it now. Someone should let them know that there was a chance they would get to do so again.

Time for another trip to Dave's. Goody.

Candy	"Slumming in the bestiary again, Price?" Candy asked in a snide voice, interrupting Verity and Carol's small talk about wigs. "This area is for Dave's employees, you know. Or have you finally realized you're no better than the rest of us and come looking for work?" Candice was standing just inside the changing room set aside for Dave's waitstaff, arms crossed defensively across her chest, model-pretty features drawn into a scowl. Her shoulders were set like she expected a fight. Maybe she did. Verity had told her the Covenant was in town not all that long before, and now here she was with another bombshell.
Verity	Verity slid off the counter, keeping her body language as open and nonthreatening as she could manage. "Hey, Candy," she said. "I actually came to talk to you, if you could give me a few minutes? It’s sort of important."
Candy	Candy's eyes narrowed. "What could you possibly want to discuss with me?" Verity gave a sideways glance towards Carol (who was trying to look like she wasn't avidly watching this little drama in the mirror) and muttered something about it being private and wanting to take it to the roof. Candy wasn't an idiot though--it would take a lot more than just a request to get her up to the roof with a member of the Covenant. "Why, so you can throw me off?!"
Verity	Excuse you, Candy, but that was ex-Covenant. And had been ex for at least three generations. Five, if you were going by the Healy line. Verity bit the inside of her cheek and counted to ten before saying, very carefully, "I have no intention of throwing you off the roof, and if you'd rather we talk here, I'm perfectly willing. I just thought you might like to have the chance to decide whether or not to tell the Nest, rather than risking this getting into the rumor mill and reaching them some other way." Carol rolled her eyes. "Thanks for putting such trust in my discretion." "It's not you I'm worried about." She jerked a thumb toward the air vent. "You really think Dave doesn’t have this place bugged?" Honestly, Verity was hoping it was just bugged. She wouldn't put it past Dave to go with cameras, too. It really just depended whether he could get the cameras on the cheap or not.
Carol	"Good point." Carol continued to fuss with her hair in the mirror, the live snakes hissing and nipping at her in protest of the wig. "Candy, go up to the roof with her. If you're not back down here in ten minutes, I'll get Ryan and come looking for you. Promise."
Verity	Candy still looked unsure. Verity sighed. "If you don't think my information was worth your time, I'll give you fifty dollars," she said, picturing her groceries for the week growing wings and flying away. She could always make do with leftovers stolen from Liam's roomates. That was mostly what she'd been doing anyway.
Candy	"One hundred," Candy countered. She saw Verity about to balk and drew her back up straighter. She was a dragon princess. Verity was lucky she was even willing to give her the time of day, never mind barter about it. "One hundred, or I don’t go with you," she continued, lifting her chin in an imperious gesture that telegraphed exactly how serious she was. Only the promise of money--all but irresistible to a dragon princess--was getting her to the rooftop, and fifty wasn't going to cut it.
Verity	Verity sighed, beaten. "One hundred, if you think my information isn’t any good."
Candy	"Deal," said Candy, and unfolded her arms. Moving with quick efficiency, she untied her apron, placed it in her locker, and padlocked the whole thing, protecting her tips. She went through that ritual every time she took a break. "Ten minutes," said Candy sternly to Carol, and left the room leaving Verity behind. She reached the roof nearly a whole minute before the human did and hell yes she deducted that minute from the total. Only nine more, Verity, make it fast. And when Verity did appear on the roof, Candy held up a hand. "Stay there. You might be planning to throw me off the roof."
Verity	Verity bit back the urge to groan. "If I was going to kill you, I'd just shoot you, okay? Gravity is not my weapon of choice. Look, the deal's off if you don't come close enough for me to tell you what I came here to tell you. So you'll have come up here for nothing." That, at least, got through to her. Candy took several grudging steps forward, until she was still out of arm's reach, but at least close enough for Verity to talk to without shouting. "Thank you," she said. Forcing her body language to remain as nonthreatening as possible, Verity asked, "Candy, have you ever heard anything--anything at all--to indicate that the dragons aren't really extinct?"
Candy	Candy reeled back as if Verity had just hauled off and punched her in the face. When she focused again, it was to give the human a look of such fury that Verity took a step back of her own. "Is that why you brought me up here?" she demanded. "To make fun of me? What, cable isn't enough for you people, you have to find other ways to entertain yourselves? That's swell of you. That's just plain swell."
Verity	"Candy, we think we may have found a dragon." Candy froze. Literally froze, dewy blue eyes gone so wide that Verity could see the whites all the way around her irises. She didn't think Candy was even breathing. "We weren't looking for it, exactly, but I have access to a telepath, and she says--"
Candy	"Where?" asked Candy. Her voice was barely a whisper, and mostly ripped away by the wind, but Verity could recognize the shape of it on her lips. She took three long, runway-perfect steps forward and grabbed Verity by the shoulders, succeeding in shaking her twice before the surprise wore off and the human pulled herself away. "Where? Don't you keep this from me, don't you dare, and if you're lying, I swear, if you're lying--"
Verity	"Candy, calm down!" Verity shook her head, holding up her hands defensively. "I only just found out, okay? I haven't been keeping anything from you. Anyway, we think there may be a dragon sleeping somewhere under the city, and we think it's connected to the recent disappearances."
Candy	Candy's eyes widened again--with anger, this time. "What, so you're blaming the dragon? Is that why you wanted to talk to me? You're looking for bait?"
Verity	"What? No! I'm blaming the disappearances on humans, some sort of snake cult, probably, trying to wake the dragon up the way they'd summon a snake god." Verity let her hands drop back down to her sides. She understood Candy's refusal to give her the benefit of the doubt, but goddamn it was exhausting. "If there is a dragon, I want to protect it. I want to prove that it's not the source of the trouble we've been having recently. And I wanted the Nest to know as soon as possible, because this affects you."
Candy	"More than you know," Candy said bitterly. Shaking her head, she asked, "So what do you want from me?"
Verity	"I want you to go to the Nest. I want you to tell them what we’ve found, and that I'm trying to find a way for you to get to the dragon," Verity said, all simple sincerity. "If there's anything that might tell me where to start looking, anything at all, I need to know."
Candy	Candy studied Verity's face, tilting her head slightly to the side as she asked, "Why should we tell you? Why shouldn't we just go looking on our own?"
Verity	"Two reasons. First off, if there's some sort of snake cult in town making virgin sacrifices, they probably already know how to get to the dragon. I’m sure they'd look at you and the Nest as a perfect virgin buffet.” Candy blanched and Verity took that as an invitation to continue on with her reasons. "And my boyfriend and I went down into the sewers yesterday, looking for clues. We got jumped by a bunch of lizard-dudes; cryptids I'd never seen before. It was like The Land of the Lost down there. Unless you're sure they'd be happy to see you, you probably need some sort of--" Verity stopped midsentence. Candy had gone pale and started to shake, suddenly looking like she was on the verge of tears. "Candy? What's wrong?"
Candy	"There's a dragon," she whispered. "There's definitely a dragon, and somebody's hurting him. They have to be hurting him if they're making servitors. Oh, Verity!" Her name came out as a wail, and Candy was suddenly doing something neither of them would ever have expected in their wildest dreams: she threw her arms around Verity's neck, burying her face against her shoulders. "We have to find him!"
Verity	Verity patted Candy awkwardly on the back, trying not to topple over. The dragon princess had an easy six inches on Verity and the differences in height made this a precarious stance to hold for long. For the chance to make up for their part in a great wrong, though, Verity would hold it forever. "Don't worry," she said, as confidently as she could. "We will."

[Adapted from Chapter 15 of Seanan McGuire's Discount Armageddon with coding help from firstofitskind, who high-fives angels on the daily. First post is here, the previous post is here, and the next post is here. NFI, NFB, OOC is love]