Page 13 of A Subtle Scar
I gave Lionel a dazzling smile as the Devil began to growl deep in his throat. Lionel had undoubtedly pleased Lucy several times already tonight, but if he could still be cheeky, that spoke for him in my book.
“Thanks, sugar,” I told him.
The Devil said, not unkindly but firmly, “Hermes, move along. I have things to discuss with my boyfriend.”
The boyfriend in question blushed delightfully, and I couldn’t help but imagine how Chandler might blush, how his lips might flush and swell when he used them to please me.
“Right. Discuss away,” I said and wandered off in search of the flawlessly dressed human with the icy eyes.
By rights, the man should stick out even in this crowd of gods and so many other, pretty humans, but look as I might, I didn’t see him.
The closer to the witching hour we got, the more the party turned toward abandon. I spotted Ronny throughout. He steered away from abandon tonight, preferring instead talking to humans. I overheard him in the cake and cuddle room talking to a police detective who’d worked with Lionel, it sounded like.
I trailed Ronny until he ended up listening to a forensic technician telling her version of how Lucifer and Lionel had broken the minotaur’s labyrinth, which I had half dismissed as a tall tale before coming here, yet listening to the female human telling it, I had to allow for it to have happened like that.
Breaking anything that had been created and successfully imprisoned one of our kind was not a small feat. So then, the demigod had to fall closer to us in terms of his powers, no matter that he had a decidedly human look about him, at least at first glance.
It made me mentally reassess. Lucy, who had always seen eye to eye with me when it came to the pleasures of pursuing pleasure, might truly and honestly change his ways now. The demigod might be beside him in the way Sephy was beside Hades, always, unfailingly.
That was an odd little thought, and for a moment, it made me feel very…lonely.
“And what are you doing?” asked a stern-faced Dragon Mother from behind me.
I jumped a little but tried to hide it by turning and moving my cocktail from one hand to the other.
Tiamat had relocated to Brunswick only the previous year. Presumably she had taken a shine to the Devil’s necromancer, but in my opinion, the Dragon Mother just went from place to place like a bee collecting honey. The Devil’s new relationship had just given her a good reason to move. Also, she’d always doted on the Devil.
“I was just standing here,” I said and did my best to take a step away from the divider I’d been hiding behind so Ronny wouldn’t notice me right away or better yet, never. On the other side of the divider, Ronny was turning around to see what was going on.
Tiamat, her umber cheeks dusted with a trace of gold, crossed her arms. “It looked to me like you were eavesdropping,” she said.
“Was not.”
“You were not?”
“No, Dragon Mother,” I said, dropping my head. “I wouldn’t. Eavesdropping is very rude.”
“Mm-hmm. Well, how are you, Hermes? Seeing anyone? It’s unusual to find you alone and coveting from afar at one of these events.”
I ran a finger through my locks. “I was notcoveting, Dragon Mother. I was just standing here. I had a human over the other day, eager young man I found at a club.”
I sounded like an idiot, and it did not reflect reality. Yes, I had had a human over to one of the apartments I kept, and yes, I had fucked that human, but he’d been coming on to me, and we’d been heavily flirting for a good hour before I’d even suggested fucking. But every time Tiamat demanded I tell her things, I sounded like an old, entitled man who didn’t take care that his lovers knew pleasure, and that was not true at all. That human, he’d cum twice. He’d even stayed for coffee and croissants the next morning. The Dragon Mother should approve. She liked when we associated with humans.
“The man stayed for coffee!” I tagged on maybe a bit too hastily.
Tiamat narrowed her forest green eyes at me. “You. And Lucy. And that idiot with the neon skulls—tell me, why is Charon wearing a blouse with neon skulls?”
“I don’t know, Dragon Mother.”
She clucked her tongue. “You all. You make everything difficult, and thereby you give every divine person a bad name.”
When Tiamat had an opinion about you, it was not generally something you could outrun or fight. Typically you were asked to improve and live up to her standards, but this was unfair. I had not done anything wrong or disapproval worthy. I was not giving anyone a bad name, and I was not wearing a silly neon blouse. My nipples were very symmetrical.
“The human enjoyed every moment! Dragon Mother, I swear, the second time around, he allowed me inside him—”
“You used a condom? No matter our divine resistance to disease, it’s a nice gesture when one is having a one-night stand.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Yes, I used a condom, Dragon Mother. I was inside him, and he was begging for more. He was very pleased. It’s a prejudice that I don’t know to take my time, I told him, just that myth, and I took my time. I am not fast in every single thing I do, that’s what I said to him, and he agreed, once he’d caught his breath again.”
