Page 57 of Firedrake Betrayal
“Why?” Shep turns from the refrigerator.
“Easier to cover up shit like a dragon destroying his compound. There’s nothing on the local, national, or international news. Just a vague report about some freak mountain accident that caused a landslide or some bullshit. Doesn’t this town have a sheriff?”
By the time the witch’s friend returns from her vacation, she won’t have two crackers to rub together with the speed we’re emptying her refrigerator and kitchen cupboards.
Hitting the grocery store isn’t an option. If I’m going to be taken out by Atticus and his guards, I don’t want it to be as I’m reaching for a bag of chips.
That and I’m too lazy to volunteer. No one else has offered to go either, so I can’t be the only one who prefers relying on what’s here already instead of venturing out for more.
Isaiah is looking at me from the kitchen island as I take the seat beside Jade. After that bite and the size of the boner it gave me, it’s hard to meet his eyes.
I’m used to wanting to climax between a woman’s thighs. What I’mnotused to is fangs in my wrist making me feel that same way.
“I imagine a man like Atticus has the sheriff in his pocket,” Isaiah says. “Probably the firemen too, if we had to dig ourselves out of that mess.”
“So the collector has the run of the town?” I ask as Jade sets aside her cup of peppermint tea.
I grip the edge of her wooden chair and drag her closer. When she smiles at me, I wish she was nearer or we were alone. There’s something about her smile that does something indescribable to me. Makes me feel like no one has before.
Dominik’s lips flatten.
Makes me enjoy my morning even more.
“Looks like he does.” I leave my arm around the back of her chair. Not to annoy Dominik still standing opposite, watching. Or not only. Jade is back. She’s fighting to stay with us, and she feels good. All great reasons to not stop touching her.
Jade peers up at me. Her dark green eyes, framed with long dark ashes, are beautiful. “At the compound, I swore when I got out that I would learn more about the things my dad kept from me so I could protect myself. Mostly I want to know about the things I should run away from. Can you help?” she asks.
I start telling her that maybe I’m not the best person to ask. I’m a lowly half-demon, and I probably know less than she does.
Then Dominik straightens, as if getting ready to volunteer.
“Sure I can.” I get to my feet and offer her my hand. “Why don’t we sit on the couch?” Dominik’s glare burns a hole through me, and I love every second of it. “We’ll be more comfortable.”
Thirty minutes later, I have Jade sitting on the couch. Shep and Isaiah have gone to do a quick food run, given that apparently a day is enough to empty a witch’s cupboards.
The dragon glared at me as I began my presentation but must have gotten bored to have wandered off.
Who the fuck knows where he’s gone?
I’m standing in front of a whiteboard I found in the office, showing off my artistic skills by drawing a stick man and woman when the front door swings open.
Shep and Isaiah carry bulging grocery bags over to the kitchen island.
After depositing his bags, Shep wanders over as I point my blue spatula at the stick man. “So you got your incubus,” I tell Jade before pointing at the stick woman. “Then, your female equivalent succubi—that’s plural for succubus, by the way. Both are your garden variety?—”
“Patten, what are you doing?” Shep asks.
“Jade wants to know more about demons. I’m giving her the rundown.” We started with the things she should run from. Dominik, most other vampires, anything with more teeth than you have. If your instincts say run, you run.
“With a spatula?” Shep raises a brow.
“With apointer.” I emphasize.
Shep looks at Jade.
“It’s very educational,” Jade says. “Once I learned to ignore the fact that it’s a spatula.”
Shep looks at the stick man and shakes his head. “Where’s Dominik?”
