Descended from Dragons: an Urban Fantasy (Moonlight Dragon Book 1) Read Free

should be, like, trying to bite your fingers off or flying at your face or something."
    "Gee, thanks!"
    Melanie shrugged. "I should be a curse-maker. I'd be the best at it. My curses would all be Mayan."
    "Since when are you Mayan?"
    "Some Mexicans are Mayan!"
    "Really?"
    "As a matter of fact, all monkey shifters are descendants of the Mayan people. So take that!"
    I had to admit, that was pretty cool. "So do you perform human sacrifices?"
    A shadow filled the front doorway. "Er, did someone just mention human sacrifices? I thought this was a pawn shop."
    My comment about the two possibly being one and the same died a quick death when I got a look at who had asked the question.
    I'm not usually attracted to blonds. Or to redheads. But this guy was a strawberry blond and somehow he made it work. I'm sure the fact that he had perfectly symmetrical features just like a model and bright blue eyes had something to do with it. Also, the perfect, charming grin. The height and the smoking bod didn't hurt either. Still, this was exactly the sort of guy who raised all my defenses.
    "Um, yeah, this is a pawn shop," I said, trying to sound nonchalant and failing utterly.
    "Anne! Anne!" Melanie put her hand against her chest and pointed sideways at him urgently. The only way she could have been more subtle was if she'd yelled, "Hey, Anne! A cute guy just walked in that you should try to date!"
    "Ah, great," he said, acting oblivious of her theatrics. He deserved at least a Tony award for that. "I was afraid I'd have to carry this around with me all day. I've been getting some weird looks."
    "I doubt they've been weird looks," Melanie muttered, but she said it so loudly we all heard it. I felt myself go red.
    "So, uh, what've you got?" I'd been too busy trying not to check him out to notice he had something charcoal gray beneath his arm that made his bicep bulge very impressively. He must work out.
    "I don't know where else to unload this thing." He joined me at the glass counter and placed what he was carrying carefully on top. He patted it on the head. "Ugly, huh?"
    Ugly wasn't exactly the word I would have used for the two and a half foot high gargoyle statue he'd set down. Gargoyles were cool in a vintage, take me to Paris sort of way, and this one was no different. Its mouth was open in a snarl and two topaz jewels that looked like real gemstones, not plastic or glass, stared back at me. It was a beautifully detailed statue. I could see striations of muscle and even veins in its wings.
    I didn't often care for the things customers brought in to pawn or sell. They were typically junk that no one wanted. However this statue piqued my interest, though I couldn't say why.
    I didn't own my own knick knacks—not when I lived in the back of a shop that was chock full of them—nor did I collect anything. My only personal possession besides my clothes was a panda pin my mother had given me. Maybe I was due for something useless to call my own.
    "It has its appeal," I hedged. I ran a finger along one stone wing. Though the statue looked like it had been formed from volcanic rock, it wasn't porous, just sort of bumpy, like how I imagined an elephant's skin to feel. I liked that it hadn't been cast out of plaster of Paris in a factory. It made me imagine an old French guy using his bare hands and a chisel to chip this thing out of a huge block of stone. Maybe he lived above a cancan show.
    "Where'd you get it?"
    "My little sister likes to travel and she picked this up for me in Europe. No idea where, though."
    "And you're trying to sell it?" I gave him a dubious look. "Won't your sister be mad?"
    He grinned carelessly. "She won't even notice. She brings home so many souvenirs I don't think she even remembers that she bought this for me." He patted the statue again. The way his arm momentarily blocked the sunlight made the topaz eyes seem to blaze brighter and then dim. "This doesn't fit in at my place. A little too Hunchback of Notre Dame for my