The first chapter, to whet your appetite...
Chapter One
“Am I going to go to hell for this?” Kelly Henderson wondered, staring down at the two half naked, slumped bodies sprawled out on the floor of the Fair Maiden’s trailer.
“For this? Doubtful.” Her younger sister Teresa was standing watch by the door as Kelly hastily pulled on the Fair Maiden’s outfit. “For various other things that you’ve done, probably. But this is just a misdemeanor compared with some of your other capers.”
Pandora Maplethorpe, who had been selected as this year’s Fair Maiden, let out a gentle snore. Her arms were flung out over her head, and she wore only her bra and underwear. The man she’d been making out with a few minutes earlier, a burly crew-cut fellow who apparently favored banana hammock underwear and embarrassing cartoony tattoos, let out a much louder snore in response.
It was Kelly’s fault that Pandora was asleep on the job. Kelly had dressed up as a serving wench (since the theme of the fair was medieval), and then slipped a sleeping powder in the pitcher of beer that she’d delivered to them half an hour earlier.
Now Pandora and her beau were out cold for a good four hours – more than enough time for Kelly to do what she needed.
“You are not helping,” Kelly said indignantly.
“Oh, am I supposed to be helping?” Teresa said, her tone annoyed. “Technically, I believe it’s called aiding and abetting. And if Chad ever finds out about this, I’ll kill you in your sleep.” Chad was Teresa’s prudish fiancé, who’d been born with a silver spoon in his mouth and a stick up his butt.
Kelly shook her head in dismay as Teresa helped her lace up her bodice. Why had the agency insisted that she bring her sister? Probably to ensure that Kelly didn’t get too crazy with her schemes; she had developed a certain reputation over time.
Ugh – what a horrible assignment. Deep in dragon shifter territory and forced to let the world’s most annoying grown up Girl Scout help her commit multiple felonies. It was all Gabriel Kingsley’s fault, that charming bastard.
Well, they’d see how charming he was once she slapped the truth-stone on his wrist and found out where he’d hidden the Dragonsblood Ruby. Then the Dragon Elders could take care of him and she could go back to living her life. 100 percent solve rate, that was Kelly’s record…up until a year ago when the Dragonsblood Ruby disappeared from the Rossi family’s castle just outside of Naples.
And wouldn’t you know it, dragon shifter and notorious jewel thief Gabriel Kingsley of South Lyndvale, Nevada, just happened to be in Naples when the jewel vanished. Nobody could prove it was him, of course – the Kingsleys were very good at what they did.
She finished adjusting her wig and looked at herself in the full-length mirror. Her straight, shiny brown hair was tucked away under a wig cap, and she wore a wig of cascading blonde ringlets that reached halfway down her back. Blue contact lenses in place, disguising her eye color…she’d lathered on the makeup and used tons of contouring…she was wearing the Fair Queen’s crimson medieval-style gown…
“I do kind of look like her, don’t I?” Kelly scrutinized her reflection, worried. She and Pandora had the same skinny build, sort of, although she’d had to pad the boob area of the costume considerably.
Teresa shook her head. “Not in the slightest. I told you so.”
Kelly glared at her sister. “You do not get to say I told you so unless I fail.”
“You mean until you fail.” At Kelly’s furious look, she snapped “What? It’s offensive that you’re a full-fledged investigator and I’m still an intern. I’m every bit as qualified as you, and I do things properly and by the book. I don’t come up with these ridiculous schemes.”
“They’re not ridiculous,” Kelly said with wounded dignity. “They have worked every time.” Disguising herself as a maid, a secretary from a temp agency, a computer repair tech, a janitor…whatever worked to get her foot in the door.
This was really pushing it, though. Here she was, deep in the heart of dragon shifter territory, about to confront a very big scary dragon who’d never been caught.
Still, she reminded herself, the truthstone always worked. What could possibly go wrong? She stroked the velvet drawstring purse where she’d concealed the gem, and felt its vibrations humming reassuringly through the cloth.
Then she rearranged the wig so that some of the flowing fake tendrils obscured her face.
“That’s somewhat less awful,” Teresa said grudgingly. Kelly knew that Teresa was torn between wanting Kelly to fail, and wanting the agency to succeed.
Ultimately, her intense desire to score a win for their employers would win out, of course. Even if it meant helping Kelly.
“All right, it’s almost time,” Teresa said with an impatient scowl pinching her narrow, pretty, face. “Let’s get this over with. Just move fast and don’t make eye contact. Do you have your script memorized?”
Kelly scoffed. “Memorized. Ha. All I have to do is lie there and act like a damsel in distress and shriek ‘Save me from this fearsome knight, oh brave and handsome dragon’!” Since they were in Nevada, the heart of dragon shifter territory, the traditional St. George and the Dragon story had been reworked a little. As in, completely rewritten – to the point where it was called “The Dragon and St. George.”
Every July, at the Tri-Valley Dragon Festival, one of the high points was a fake battle between a dragon and the loathsome “human” St. George. They had to have a dragon shifter playing the part of the human, because at the end of the battle, the dragon roasted “George” in a stream of fire, and no actual human could withstand that.
A local human woman, and a local male dragon, were selected at random by the Tri-Valley Fair Committee; they pulled the names out of a hat. The lucky lady would play the part of the damsel in distress, who was supposed to marry her true love, a dragon shifter, but then was kidnapped by a disgusting and evil human knight.
The knight carried the princess away to the middle of a grassy field. There, he threatened to kill her unless she agreed to marry him.
Kelly had glanced at the script that lay on the table in the Fair Maiden’s trailer, just in case she actually had to participate in the stupid skit, but she was sure that things wouldn’t get that far. She would find Gabriel right before he shifted, slap the truth-stone onto his arm, and ask him two questions – did you steal the Dragonsblood Ruby? And where is it now?
Sure, fair security guards would probably drag her off, and she might be stuck in the local pokey for a few hours, but no big deal. It would hardly be the first time for her. Her firm would bail her out, and Gabriel would be forced to return the ruby and probably do some serious jail time.
That last bit made her feel a teeny bit of a twinge – even though she knew it was foolish wasting her sympathy on Gabriel. He’d stolen a priceless family heirloom, for profit. He was the last person she should be feeling badly for.
Teresa opened the door, looked around, then walked down the metal folding steps, and Kelly grabbed her drawstring pouch and followed her. The glowing yellow-white orb of the sun floated in a cloudless sky the color of faded denim, and the din of the fair attendees ebbed and flowed like a tidal wave of sound.
As they started to make their way towards the staging area, Kelly glanced around quickly to make sure that nobody was watching them. A few people waved, and she waved back, hiding behind Teresa as much as she could without being too obvious. The fairground scents of cotton candy and popcorn and roasting meat wafted through the air.
“So literally all that the Fair Maiden does is lie around and scream for help?” Teresa spoke in a low voice, lip curled in disgust as they wove their way through the crowd.
Kelly nodded. “Exactly. When the knight threatens me, I scream ‘I would rather die than marry you! The dragon is my only true love!’ And then the dragon flies in, lands, and St. George and the dragon fight, and the dragon grabs me and flies off, and that’s the end of the skit. Except of course it won’t get that far.”
Now they were walking behind food vendors booths, and the smell of frying funnel cake and corn dogs made Kelly’s stomach rumble. She’d been too nervous to eat this morning.
“How did the dragon get that close without the knight noticing?” Teresa wondered. “You’d think that a twenty-foot beast with a fifty foot wingspan would be pretty hard to miss. You’d hear the wings flapping and see the shadow.”
“Don’t ask me, I didn’t write the play.”
“And your only role is to be rescued? How positively medieval.”
“Yes, that’s kind of the point, isn’t it?” Kelly looked at the stage up ahead.
“I need to get home to plan my wedding. Don’t screw this up,” Teresa warned her.
“Do I ever?”
“There’s always a first time,” Teresa said. Kelly thought she sounded a little too hopeful.
They were getting closer to the stage, and the crowd was thicker now. People recognized the Fair Maiden costumed, and they whooped and hollered as Kelly walked by.
A couple of women in medieval garb, with big yellow “Tri-Valley Fair” badges hanging around their necks, spotted her. They waved at her impatiently, urging her towards the stage.
“I don’t see Gabriel Kingsley,” Teresa said nervously.
Suddenly, someone bumped into Kelly hard, and sent her staggering. She struggled to catch her balance and bit back an unprincess-like response and then she felt a sudden emptiness. The truth-stone was gone; she sensed its absence. She looked down at her now empty hand and let out a gasp of dismay.
She could just see the man who’d bumped into her, racing away through the crowd, elbowing and punching people. “My purse!” she cried out. “He took my purse!”
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