City of Dragons: Of Flesh and Blood Read Online Free PDF

between the two men blocking the door. Farley sat on a table across the room wearing a pair of handcuffs while he stuffed his mouth with pilferings from a Krispy Kreme box. In one hand Terry had a heating pad pressed to his back, in the other a large bottle of cream.
    Terry’s green eyes were hot. “Didn’t you bother to look at his ID? What the hell’s wrong with you?”
    And that right there is exactly why Haley liked Terry so much. She had a really bad habit of treating Kin like people. Most days it was a good thing.
    “We checked for a wallet.”
    Haley looked at the protesting cop’s name tag. It said Kennedy. The other one was Rody.
    Farley said something indiscernible around a mouth full of doughnut while simultaneously giving them the finger.
    “Where’s the key?” Haley held out a hand at the MARTA cops, and they just stared like deer in headlights. “The key to the handcuffs? I want it. Now!”
    Rody fished it out. “We already put them on the front so he wouldn’t be uncomfortable.” He said it like Farley should be grateful. Haley undid the handcuffs and threw them at Rody. The cop fumbled but made the save. He said, “Look, he was attacking some kid. We were doing our jobs.”
    “It wasn’t a kid, you asshole.” Farley took the cream from Terry and guzzled it. Poor Terry was watching Farley like a worried mother hen.
    Kennedy jabbed a finger at Farley. “We both saw him, wyrm, he was a kid and scared shitless. And as far as we knew, you were out looking for a piece of ass or a snack.”
    Farley growled, flashing sharp teeth flecked with the insides of an éclair.
    Haley pointed a finger at Farley. “You stop.” When she looked back at the cops, they were rocking on their heels like they’d won some sort of competition. Well, Haley was about to burst that bubble. “Did you count the guy’s fingers?” The two cops looked at Farley. Haley stepped in their way. “Not him. The guy he tackled. Did you count his fingers?” Their expressions said it all. “He was Folk. Farley’s been trying to get ahold of a manifest for Vice. They estimate up to twenty-five live bodies are going to be coming in here over the next week, and thanks to you we may never know where and when.”
    With their self-righteous balloon deflated, the transit cops took on the appearance of two men who did not want to be where they were.
    Haley opened her mouth to shoot off a few more angry words, but a crackle came over the radio on Terry’s shoulder.
    “Ten-seventy-eight in the Tank, possible ten-eleven times two. Repeat possible ten-eleven times two.”

Chapter 3
     
    The hallway to the Tank was packed shoulder to shoulder with officers. But even with all the voices, the shouts from other cops, Haley could hear the high wailing keen of a Kin in distress. She shoved her way through and froze when she got to the end of the hall.
    Officer Donald stood in the door way, his night stick in one hand and his half-lidded eyes on the occupants of Interrogation Room Two. His mouth curled in a small satisfied smile.
    Haley noticed a splash of green ichor painted his left cheek. When he backed away, a trail of it followed, dripping from his baton.
    Farley raced past and slid to a stop at the door. His eyes widened, and his lips thinned out. He hit her with eyes that said
Don’t look
. But she had to. Haley pushed past him and into Room Two. At first she thought some of the lights had gone out, but realized the bulbs were covered by the green of Kin blood. It coated the ceiling in high velocity spray.
    Reiah was sprawled out on his back, his limbs bent at odd angles, one side of his beautiful face completely smashed to an unrecognizable pulp. A rib stuck out of his side along with the black sheen of his insides. Osa screamed and pressed his face to Reiah’s shoulder, his hands, but Reiah couldn’t comfort him. Both Males had lost their clothes at some point, and they lay off to the side forgotten.
    “God of Man…” Haley