Page 50 of Distinctly Daray
But that was contingent upon his dragon behaving himself. To help with that, Phillip had to ensure he spent as few hours away from Victor and Keegan as possible. That was something Phillip yearned for anyway, but he also couldn’t impose on their lives. It was a balance Phillip hoped to master in the coming days and weeks.
Chapter 18
Humming as he stirred his spaghetti sauce, Victor glanced at the clock. He smiled as he heard booted feet on the stairs. Sentinels were wonderfully predictable, and it made Victor’s schedule easy to manage. There was never any question about when to serve meals. Within seconds, the kitchen filled with Darays greeting him and grabbing everything necessary to set the table for dinner.
His family had worked hard all day and were hungry, so they moved with alacrity.
The Arch Lich sauntered in. He had already changed out of his suit into jeans. Predictably, he was scanning the kitchen for vegetables so he could lodge a complaint about them.
“You like spaghetti,” Victor said to the imp-necromancer as he turned to hug him.
“Yeah, but I bet there’s a salad or something lurking around here,” Chander remarked.
“Of course there is,” Victor replied.
“And you will eat some,” Alaric stated.
“Says you,” Chander retorted. “But the last time I checked, you weren’t the boss of me.”
“Rough day?” Victor asked.
“I swear every jerk in the Council called me this afternoon,” Chander complained. “How was your day?”
The doorbell rang, and Victor grinned. “Good, and about to get even better.”
Chander finally smiled. “Was your new bed delivered?”
“Yep. The construction was completed too,” Victor said. “The bathroom is now remodeled for three, and there’s one giant closet instead of two.”
A redheaded fallen knight with big brown eyes and a lovely smattering of freckles rushed into the kitchen, holding the hand of a sentinel with dark hair obscuring half of his gray gaze, and Victor’s heart rejoiced. His kitty purred with approval, and Victor kissed both of his mates thoroughly.
“How can we help?” Keegan asked.
Victor directed everyone to aid him in emptying pots and pans into serving dishes, and soon he found himself planted on Phillip’s side at the table. Soon, the chairs were full of Darays and Alaric was filling tiny bowls with noodles and sauce for the goblins Chander had summoned for him. They’d tried several options, but ultimately, the goblins preferred to eat at the island. To ensure they were comfortable, Victor had arranged for a tiny table and two chairs to be made for them, and it was tucked against the wall next to the always-full cookie jar whenever Pizza and Rogue weren’t using it.
“How’d your day go?” Victor asked Phillip.
“It went well,” Phillip replied. “I enjoy working in the office, and I only took a single potion this morning. Keegan, did your classes go well?”
“Yep, we had a quiz, and I nailed it,” Keegan said.
“Guess what else he’s going to nail tonight?” Baxter asked. There was a chorus of groans in response to the Daemon Lord. “What? We all know they got a new bed today. Of course they’re going to want to test it out.”
“Mind your own business,” Chander retorted.
“That is a talent he has never learned,” Ducarius muttered.
“Oh, are you admitting to another sentinel fault?” Arvandus teased. “First, we have Eduard with his terrible saxophone skills, and now we have Bax failing to learn how to behave. I think if you guys aren’t careful, the entire Sentinel Brotherhood could be on the verge of collapse.”
“Eduard has improved with his saxophone thanks to Devlin’s coaching,” Hexaniys defended. Victor didn’t want to refute the Imperator’s words, but he couldn’t help his face, and apparently neither could anyone else, given the number of skeptical looks aimed in Hexaniys’s direction. Not even the famous rock star of the family—who performed using the name Develin Nero in the band Barbed Ebon—could work a big enough miracle to increase Eduard’s skill to a level where anyone wanted to listen to him play.
“Sometimes you have to admit when your mate sucks at something,” Benton remarked. “Like I know Bax is shit at behaving himself.”
“You like it that I don’t behave,” Baxter responded with a saucy smile for his other half.
“Gross,” Samson said.
“Sorry that some of us want more from life than to have a mate who shoves cookies in our face all day,” Baxter retorted.
