Page 14 of A Subtle Scar
She looked over to Ronny, who was gesticulating. It was very visible with those neon skulls on his blouse. The female forensic tech had skull earrings too, and the two of them seemed to have landed in their own little, skull-shaped world. I narrowed my eyes at her.
Tiamat sighed. “Yes. You and all the other children always take their time. Figuring out the important things. It is like no one was gentle with you before you hatched, like no one warmed the shell of your eggs.”
“I did not hatch from an egg, Dragon Mother,” I said, then bit my lip because she knew that. She narrowed her eyes. I spoke without thinking in hopes of distracting her and attempted to give her a charming smile. “Dragon Mother. I am not a child. I am a god.”
“Yes,” Tiamat said. “And does this god recall the name of the human he made love to the other night?”
Oh, oops. “I called him sweetheart, Dragon Mother. He liked it.”
“Hermes, you should aim for something greater.”
It wasn’t easy to resist the Dragon Mother’s gaze. It was a weighty gaze, and on top of that, having the Dragon Mother’s praise was a treat I’d love savoring almost as much as I wanted to savor the human, not the one from last night, but this one, this…Chandler.
“I do have my eyes on a human, and his name is Chandler,” I said. Never before had I been gladder to have suffered through Ronny’s ridicule in order to have the knowledge of the human’s name now. “In fact, Ronny and I have a bet going on who will bed him first.”
The Dragon Mother raised an eyebrow. “You and Charon. Havebothdecided to seduce Vincent Chandler? Nelly’s and Lucy’s Vincent?”
Glowing, I said, “Is that his first name? And yes, they both do know the human, so I suppose it is the same one.”
The Dragon Mother patted me on the shoulder. “Well, Hermes, sweetheart, I’m sure you and our skull-bedazzled Charrie will figure things out. For yourselves. And the people around you. If Lucy managed, you two will.”
I puffed out my chest. “Thank you, Dragon Mother.” Then I thought about it. “Although, I do have things figured out.” I shot her a smile. “It comes with being a god.”
She smiled and patted me on the cheek. “I need to go and get naked in the pool, Hermes. You make sure I hear no complaints about your handling of Vincent Chandler, yes? I would not want to hear complaints. He is a charming human and a very talented magic user.”
I straightened, confidence lifting my chest like wind fattening a sail. “Dragon Mother, I’ve never had any complaints. About my handling of anyone’s things. I’m sure Vincent Chandler, as a discerning human, will agree.”
She nodded. “Before he can do that, you’ll have to find him and get him to allow you to handle him.”
I grinned at her. “He might beg to be handled.”
She sighed. “He doesn’t strike me as the begging kind, but you and Charrie go ahead and try to get him there.”
“Dragon Mother, I will succeed in that first.” I looked over my shoulder at Ronny and the forensic skull human. “Ronny is otherwise busy.”
“Yes, yes. Go and figure things out, sweetheart.”
I nodded, and the Dragon Mother walked off, shedding her thin gown on the way to the outdoor Jacuzzi.
Yes, I would be the one who got to bed the human. Who got to bed Vincent Chandler.
Only I would have to find him first.
I did not get a chance to seduce the human because the human remained conspicuously out of sight. Really, there was some skill to that. It was, in fact, unlikely that neither I nor Ronny spotted him, and I did keep an eye on Ronny to make sure he didn’t steal the human right from under my nose.
Ronny kept moving from person to person, and in the early hours when Lucy and his demigod had already retired for good, Ronny walked up to me again. Incidentally, I was standing at the fireplace where he’d accosted me first to proclaim he wanted the human I had already picked.
“You look like that’s pure lemon juice in your glass,” Charon said.
“Jealous, Ronny, that you didn’t get to drink anyone’s juices?”
“Do not—I had a wonderful Equinox, Hermes, and unlike yourself, I do not stand around in dark corners like a brooding creep.”
I patted him on the shoulder. “If anything, I’m attractively mysterious. Humans these days prefer it. To”—I summarized his whole outfit and appearance with my raised glass—“all this overexcited bubbly whatever you want to call it. And really, Ronny. That hair.”
Ronny opened his mouth to say something—likely he was going to bitch about me calling him Ronny again. He got as far as, “You—” but then he froze mid-insult and looked over my shoulder.
I followed his line of sight, and there he was. The human, walking past the more or less active orgy around us like a man who had places to be.
