Page 61 of Surviving Enchantment: Part One
“So, you are not demonborn.”
She salted her eggs benedict and said in a singsong, “Demonborn but not demonblood.Consider my mother a surrogate who was always planning on keeping the babies.”
Nylora started eating and was relieved that both of them were eating steak and eggs.“Well, at least somebody can eat what they like.”
Demuel chuckled.“Our other forms are herbivores.We are not.”
“Oh, good.I have vegan nightmares now and then.”
Demuel grinned.“You don’t say.”
“Don’t be weird.Until you have been chased by twelve-foot kale, you have nothing to snicker about.”She kept eating.“And you aren’t a mare.I am pretty sure I would have noticed.”
He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her against him, kissing the top of her head.
“I swear, if you left steak juice in my hair...I am not a repository for things to finish later.”She glanced at her belly.“Well, mostly.”
Solor choked and coughed slightly.“Sorry.”
“Yeah.Well.That was then.This is now, and I am protective of my hair.That’s why I strangle and pin it back.Also keeps patients from grabbing it.”She stabbed the hashbrowns and finished her breakfast or dinner.
She sat back and nursed her decaf.“Okay, now you guys.Solor, what are you when you aren’t wearing a stab vest?”
“Um, I have family responsibilities and community responsibilities.”
“Hobbies?”
“Not really.My time is fairly accounted for.”
She sighed and looked to Demuel.“What about you?”
“Same.Community responsibility, family responsibility.Working out, going out with friends.”
“Oh, so you have them.Cool.”
He snorted.
Solor grunted.“I have friends, too.We are sitting in a room with them.”
“Aw, but they get paid to hang out with you.”
Laughter erupted at four different tables around them.
Solor blinked.“I suppose they do.You are hard on the ego.”
She shrugged.“I was just making an observation based on the descriptors you offered.”
Demuel said, “What do you do?”
“Well, before Bump, I would hang out with friends, go out to karaoke—Bump is a great singer—go to the gym, hang out with other medics on days off.Garden, hang out with my foster sister.Watch movies.That kind of thing.”She rubbed her belly under the table.“I am slowing down a bit.”
Demuel stared at her.“You launched over my head and tucked and rolled.”
“I know.Before Bump, I could have stuck the landing without road rash.”Nylora held her cup between her hands.“Thanks again for the healing.”The kick made her smile, and she released her cup to rub at her bump again.
Demuel looked and said, “May I?”
She met his gaze and nodded.
