Sinister Magic: An Urban Fantasy Dragon Series (Death Before Dragons #1) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,11
less firmness, it was difficult. The guy a few seats away started muttering, “Life’s a long drive, but my car’s in the shop. Life’s a long drive, but my car’s in the shop.” Over and over, too loudly to ignore.
I turned in the paperwork. The other person waiting kept straightening the magazines on the coffee table over and over.
I gritted my teeth. Dr. Google assured me that normal people went to therapy—I’d checked—but they weren’t represented in this waiting room.
“Mary will see you now,” the receptionist said.
Mary? How… informal. Did this mean Mary hadn’t earned a degree that came with a fancy honorific?
“Thanks,” I mumbled and walked through the door she opened for me.
Mary turned out to be a graying Japanese woman with the last name Watanabe, but she only introduced herself by her first name and waved me to a chair that faced her seat and would put my back to the door. I gritted my teeth again. The odds of danger finding me here were low, but putting my back to a door went against my instincts. It wasn’t as if Ms. Perky was going to beat down invaders before they could reach us.
“Aren’t you supposed to have a couch?”
“Do you need a nap?”
“No, I need a seat that doesn’t put my back to the door.”
That was a weird thing to admit, wasn’t it? Her eyebrows climbed. Yes, it was.
Growling, I adjusted the chair so that I faced the certificate proclaiming her a Licensed Professional Counselor and could see the door. I had to turn my head to look at her, but it wasn’t my fault she’d so inconsiderately set up her office.
She had my paperwork on a tray beside her chair and a notepad in her lap. The sole desk in the room was pushed up against a wall and was apparently there to hold plants and stacks of folders rather than for work.
“What brings you here today?” Mary asked.
“A referral.”
She raised her eyebrows encouragingly. Oh hell, was I going to have to do all the talking? Small talk isn’t my thing. Nor is pouring out my soul to strangers.
“I’ve developed a few… health quirks, and my doctor thinks stress may be a factor. But look, I don’t want to talk about my childhood or my mom or analyze ink blots or take a personality test or any of that bullshit. I just need some breathing exercises or meditation techniques or something.”
It was a struggle not to lump those latter two into “any of that bullshit” too, but I was willing to admit that I did get tense at times. Maybe there was a method that could relax me when I was on the road. Punching the bag at the gym always helped, but beating things up wasn’t always practical.
“I see. Is work on the table?” Mary didn’t appear fazed by my list. “What do you do for a living?”
“Professional killer.”
She dropped her pen.
“Not of people.” I lifted my hands. “Of magical beings that come to our world and commit crimes against people. Like the wyverns in the news a couple of weeks ago.” I hoped she wasn’t going to be one of those nuts who denied that such creatures existed. The mainstream news didn’t cover them, but there were millions of social media posts and videos online. If she thought those were all hoaxes, I might end up with a fistful of drug prescriptions and an appointment in a sanitarium. Could medical professionals without fancy higher degrees prescribe drugs?
“I see.” Mary picked up the pen. “You don’t count them as people? Aren’t some of them intelligent with languages and cultures of their own?”
“They usually have languages, yes. We don’t talk about their art preferences and religious beliefs before I shoot them.”
At least she didn’t deny that the magical existed. Unless she was humoring me. I squinted at her. She’d lost some of her unfazed expression and was tapping the pen on her notepad.
“Most of my contracts come from the government,” I said, deciding that flippancy might get me in trouble. “And even with the ones that don’t, I do my research and make sure they’ve committed crimes—usually, they’re horrible crimes, like killing and eating people—before going after them. I don’t bug anyone who’s just hanging out here on Earth.”
“It’s my understanding that these beings are essentially illegal immigrants, here without permission and not granted rights by most of our governments.”