Page 2 of Always Say Yes to a Dragon

“That depends on what you like,” I replied. He must be able to eat regular human food, right? Social media had lit up with all the restaurants he and Niemrin had eaten at since they’d claimed the city. Norma’s Kitchen had gotten a nice boost in business since Az’zael’s first visit, for all that it was little more than a mid-priced restaurant specializing in comfort food.

“Meat.”

Right.I should have guessed that. All those sharp teeth. My stomach swooped. “The pulled pork is a personal favorite. I’d recommend the ribs as well.”

“Doyoulike the ribs, Elle?” he asked. The way he kept saying my name, like he was carefully fitting his inhuman mouth around thehuman syllables, made me want to simultaneously crawl away and crawl toward him.

I shrugged as naturally as I could manage. “They aren’t my favorite, but lots of customers rave about them.”

“I’ll take the pulled pork sandwich, then,” Az’zael said. Niemrin glanced up at him sharply, eyes narrowed.

“Excellent. I’ll get those put in for you.” I fell back on comfortable server scripts as I cleared away the menus and left.

I put in their orders and figured I had time to check on another table when Maya caught me. “Table twelve’s drinks are empty,” she said.

“On it.” I glanced over and mentally pulled up table twelve’s order—sweet tea and Diet Coke. Both glasses had a few inches of liquid left.

Maya didn’t let go of my arm. “You can’t just ignore the rest of your tables because you have a VIP. It’s bullshit that he gets to come here and fuck everything up andstillget everyone to treat him like a king.” Maya’d had to find a new place last month because her landlord sold her building to some fancy new development the dragons were backing. I understood her anger, but she didn’t get to take it out on me. I had my own shit to deal with.

“Doyouwant to handle the dragons?”

Her fair skin went several shades paler as her eyes found the two dragons. I followed her gaze to Az’zael, whose slit-pupiled eyes were fixed on me, his head cocked to one side.

Throat suddenly dry, I forced myself to focus on Maya. “Didn’t think so. We want them to have a delightful time and then leave as quickly as possible, right? So they’re going to get the best service I can give them, and if you have a problem with that, take it up with Deja.” Deja was our manager.

“No need to be a bitch about it,” she snapped.

“Apparently there is.” I broke her grip and went to refill table twelve’s drinks. Maya and I weren’t exactly buddies, but I couldn’t believe she was giving me shit about how I handled the dragons when she couldn’t handle serving them herself.

I had just enough time to refill table twelve’s glasses before the dragons’ food was ready—thank goodness for small favors. When I dropped it off, Niemrin ignored the minor interruption. But Az’zael took a moment to thank me, and I felt my shoulders relax a notch.

He seemed like he was going out of his way to be polite. Maybe some dragons were just intense, like some humans. Though why his intensity was focused onme…who knew? Maybe he’d treated Cal and Maya the same way, and that’s why our two most experienced servers hadn’t been able to control their nerves. Hell,Iwas barely controlling my nerves.

I distracted myself from the red dragon’s attention with a quick round of all my tables, some of whom were less enthused about their food now that the two most powerful beings in the city were mere feet away. Seemed eating at a dragon-patronized restaurant was only cool if the dragons weren’t actually present. Two of my tables closed out early.

I trotted up to my last table, where a white couple in their mid-thirties were absorbed in conversation, unaware of their surroundings.

“You have the house list? I think we’re meeting the real estate agent in somewhere called Collins Park.” The woman, her blonde hair pulled back into a bun that wouldnotsurvive long in the spring humidity, named one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Kilinis in a slight New York accent.

Or maybe New Jersey? Damned if I could tell the difference, but I supposed I’d learn, since more and more of my customers were fromup north. Or California. Seemed everyone wanted to move to Kilinis lately.

“Yes, it’s right here.” The man across from her tapped his phone, a sleek new model. Then he turned to me. “Do you recommend anything? We’ve never really eaten Southern food.”

His face froze, and all the color drained from it as his attention moved behind me. “Are those the dragons?”

Shit. Was Az’zael staring at me again?

“Yes. The red one is Az’zael.” I stumbled over the double-Z sound in the middle, blushing and feeling like the biggest idiot for not knowing how to say his name when he lived in my city. “And the green one is Niemrin.” Thank god his name was a little easier to wrap my tongue around, though the i-e wasn’t comfortable and stretched his name into almost three syllables. Ni-em-rin.

Neither of the humans in front of me noticed my blunder.

“Does he…” He licked his lips, still bug-eyed. “Does he come here often?”

“Yes,” I said, since every week for three weeks straight seemed like “often” to me, though who knew? Maybe he’d move on to some other restaurant next month.

They both stared at him, mouths agape.

I glanced over my shoulder just in time to see Az’zael’s eyes snap back to Niemrin. Hopefully, my table’s stares hadn’t offended him.

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