Page 92 of Devil Bound
She looked at me with her sharp green eyes.“That is no way to woo a man, Lucifer, and you will receive punishment for it.”
“Yes, Dragon Mother.”I looked down at my lap to show my humility.
Tiamat’s phone rang.She pulled it from her pocket and answered while continuing to steer one-handed.
“Christine?”
Tiamat had managed to get Nelly’s police officer friend involved in under five minutes, and the Dragon Mother had convinced the human that we needed to find that other cop, pronto.Instead of waiting in a parked car, Tiamat had decided to just drive, because as she claimed “A Dragon Mother’s instinct is infallible in such matters.”
Well, I would take her instinct over twiddling my thumbs in a parked car.
“Yes, I got that,” she told the human on the other end.“Of course, join us.I’d like to meet you and express my gratitude in person.”Tiamat hung up the phone.“You will start by painting my new house.”
“Yes, Dragon Mother.”
“And the lawn.You will come to cut the grass every Saturday, and you will bring Nelly.”
“Yes, Dragon Mother.”
She looked over at me even as she drove, well, like the Devil.The city lights illuminated her face.
“If you cannot manage to keep Nelly, even I won’t be able to help you.”
“I have no intention of losing Lionel, Dragon Mother.”My voice had perhaps a little more edge than was proper.“Like I said, I will take—"
“Yes, you will take responsibility for him.”She sighed.“All of you, like newly hatched babes.Do you think, Lucy, that a fluffy baby chick can take responsibility for another?”
I didn’t exactly see where the similarities were.Maybe because they were fluffy, and my hair was naturally fluffy too?It mattered little.
“No, Dragon Mother?”
“No.Because they know nothing about the kind of life that is headed their way, and they need to learn about themselves before taking responsibility for anything beyond their own feathers.You will work hard to learn what you need to learn?”
“Yes, Dragon Mother.”
“Good.”She took a turn at high speed.“That’s what I want to hear.”
The Dragon Mother decelerated and parked the car neatly outside an office building without screeching tires that would have announced us.The building was the kind that allowed one to rent out single rooms for operations that needed an address and nothing more.None of the windows were lit, and the building had a dark aura.
I pushed some magic at the uninviting structure and gritted my teeth.
“Part of the basement is warded.”
“Yes, I can see that.Christine was right.It would appear this is the place.”
Tiamat got out, and Soul and I followed.I saw the hellpoodle show teeth, white and sharp with the force of the curse she bore.
“You may do the bulk of the rescuing,” the Dragon Mother said.“I will observe.”
“Yes, Dragon Mother.”
She was going to judge as well, no doubt.Once I’d made sure Nelly was all right, maybe he’d be open to some swooning.
And Nelly had to be all right.I wanted to tear heads off, badly, knowing his all right-ness had been threatened.
For one thing, confessing my overeager labeling of Nelly’s and my relationship so soon and under these circumstances had been less than ideal.Not that I’d ever hold on to a fickle truth over Nelly’s safety, but still, his tendency toward being difficult really made my tendency toward always, always telling the truth complicated to maintain.If he kept ruining that for me, I’d only have my flawless hair to fall back on.And the magical force and raw power of an immortal god, of course, but that was a given.
For another, to see Nelly and presume you might touch him with foulness, harm his nocturnally pale skin… The thought itself was vile.In many ways, Nelly was like a puppy or a baby chick, just as the Dragon Mother had said.I realized then what she had been meaning to tell me: that Nelly needed care, just like one such fluff ball, maybe a nice cage to keep him in and make sure no foxes caught sight of his sightly feathers.He was a swan prince who needed fussing over indeed.
