How to Lose Your Dragon (The Immortality Curse Book 1)

I knew they’d sped off in a long black sedan, but those weren’t exactly uncommon, especially in Washington where everyone and their brother had a big car so they could tow their boats around.
I used Grax’thor to help push me back up onto my feet and placed a hand on my side. There was a slight bruise there where one of Lanky Guy’s ruffians had pushed me over the second time. I could already tell it was going to sting come morning.
And without Mei and her amazing herbal supplements to help me out, I was going to feel the full effect of it this time.
I groaned and slumped against the wall, clutching my side as I slid Grax’thor back into its sheath after wiping the blood off on my jeans.
What? They were ruined now. Might as well put them to good use. They’d cost me a pretty penny, too - about a hundred bucks. But good jeans were worth every penny when you found them.
“You all right, little man?” a voice beckoned from the alleyway I’d come out of earlier.
I smiled a little at the sound. “Just peachy,” I lied, trying my best to put on a big grin.
Yuri came into view then as he piled out of the alleyway with Sevin in tow. Both their eyes went wide as they took in the scene and my harried look.
I couldn’t blame them, I was sweating pretty hard by this point, my hair matted against my face, with a fresh tear in my jeans, blood staining them, and one hand cradling my stomach. It must look like I’d lost a fight.
How little they knew.
Yuri looked around, spying Half-Naked Guy lying in a heap not far away.
“Why no leave some for us?” he asked. He had a big frown on his face, and suddenly there was a big knife in his left hand that hadn’t been there before. At least, I was pretty sure it hadn’t been there. I guess I wasn’t paying that much attention.
I shrugged and walked over, patting the big man on the shoulder. “Sorry, big guy,” I told him, “you’ll just have to be faster next time.”
Sevin looked at me then, his eyes beady and small in the dim light of the alley. His face looked a little green, and I wondered if he was going to puke.
“Never seen a dead guy before?” I asked him, pointing toward Half-Naked Guy with my good hand.
He shook his head and put his hand over his mouth. “No,” he muttered, not even bothering to use his French accent this time.
I grimaced and put a hand on his shoulder. “Why don’t you sit over here,” I offered, holding out my other hand and pointing toward a low windowsill sticking about a foot off the ground. Some buildings in Seattle had very low windows like that. I never did understand why, but supposedly it had something to do with the town burning down and being rebuilt. For now, it would serve as a surrogate bench.
Sevin nodded and he took a seat, his eyes still half-staring at my dead opponent. I let him be, not sure what else to do, and checked on Yuri.
The big Russian was making his way over to my old foe by this point, so I went over to check on him as well before he could spoil the crime scene. If there were any clues left to be found, I wanted them to be fresh and untouched.
Don’t get me wrong. Yuri was strong and likely good in a fight. I’d seen him lay a normal person out in one swift punch once when they got a bit unruly at the bar. But he didn’t have a good eye for details and had never worked a crime scene. In my line of work, I’d seen more than my fair share.
I limped forward as fast as I could to where Half-Naked Guy lay in the street, broken and bleeding from multiple spots, my side aching and begging me to sit all the while. I managed to reach him at about the same as Yuri, and I put a hand on his forearm to hold him back.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”
Yuri had a pained expression in his face. “Why he no wear shirt?” He pointed at the dead guy.
In spite of my resolve, I belted out a high-pitched laugh. “I don’t know, big man. I didn’t stop to ask him who his tailor was as he tried to run me through.”
The big Russian shook his head a few times. “You Americans are weird people,” he muttered, throwing his hands up in defeat. Then he went back to go comfort Sevin while I took in the rest of the scene.
Half-Naked Guy hadn’t looked all that great before when I’d been fighting him, but he looked even worse now. There were multiple lacerations on his face, a flap of skin hanging off one cheek and the skin on the other side of his face was missing entirely. The tire marks across his chest had crushed several ribs, and I could see white bone sticking out in several spots. In addition, his intestines were starting to spill out of the hole I’d made in his stomach, leaving behind an awful stench.
“Well, that’s going to make it hard to identify you,” I told him, tsking once for good measure. Dental records or DNA would do it, but from the look of his mouth, he didn’t have the former, and I didn’t really have money with which to do the latter.
I shook my head and let out a sigh. “Guess it’s back to rifling your pockets, then.”
I turned his body over with a massive shove. Blood oozed out of his multitude of wounds, mixing with the blue ink that covered most of his bare upper body. It was then that I realized the blue ink was some sort of war paint, undoubtedly one that would help me recognize the clan he belonged to, if I knew about