Page 45 of Rock Bottom
“Do you have a picture of him?”
She shook her head. “I can get Marco to pull some images from my head and show them to you. While Marco’s at it, you can listen to him, since his accent and sexy talk define him just as much as his looks.” She rolled her eyes. “Even before I had the necklace, he wanted to claim me, to take me to Hell and keep me, basically. Eventually, I got myself thrown out of Hell, and I’m not allowed back unless he can prove to the big guy that I can be controlled. He had some kind of plan to do that before I became Queen of Alfheim, but the extra skills I picked up during that process I thinkfinallyput me out of his reach. He’s tried to trick me into bargaining for pieces of my soul, but I won’t bargain, and…”
She shrugged. “His son is in a prison on Olympus, which means he can’t threaten my daughter to get me to bargain, because he knows his son will pay the price for it. I’ve had to do some horrible things to keep her safe, and I’ve done so without missing a beat. He knows what I’m capable of, and he fears for his son’s safety. As he should.”
“You have a daughter?”
“Yes. She’s grown and living with the loves of her life in Las Vegas. I’m very happy for her, and also happy I can teleport to her multiple times a week, or I’d miss her something awful. You should know that Xaephan has lesser demons who listen in on people he has an interest in. Twenty-four/seven, day in and day out, their job is to listen to this one person and play back the interesting parts to their boss. This land, Homewood, has been magicked so he can’t listen in, but you’ll want to be careful about saying interesting things once you can go home, or back to Will’s.”
She pronounced the demon’s name like Shay-Fan, but I had a feeling that wasn’t how it was spelled. “Can you spell his name for me, please?”
She spelled it out, and I shook my head because there’s no way I’d have guessed that, but I made sure I’d remember it so I could look it up later.
She told me about him taking over one of her patients, possessing his body and using his therapy appointment so he could talk to her. She told me he can freeze people, and warned me he might freeze my security so he could talk to me without being bothered or interrupted.
“Does Drake have people he can’t freeze?”
“It would take a god or goddess, possibly one of the strong demigods or demigoddesses. They don’t, but I’ll see if Mordecai can come up with a solution before you leave here.”
“Is it okay for me to change out the necklace the coin is on? I like the titanium, the silver look, with some outfits, but I’d prefer to have a black one, and maybe an indigo one. Possibly turquoise.”
“Yes, but you should use a secure clasp, maybe one that screws? But yeah. The necklace chose you, so whatever works best. Xaephan has the jewel mounted on a ring.”
“Oh! So it doesn’t have to be a necklace? I don’t do rings on stage, but I’m a big fan of bracelets when I’m in girl mode.”
“Whatever you do, if the necklace doesn’t like it, it’ll reconfigure to be what and where it wants. A bracelet can be magicked to the size of a necklace. I tried it as an ankle bracelet once, and it ended up on my wrist for a short time before it made it back to my neck.”
“Bummer. Good to know, though.”
Chapter 16
Julian
I awakened and took a few seconds to acclimate to life again. Within seconds, Master’s voice was in my head.
You and I will have to leave for Memphis tonight. Spend the evening with your Silver, since we’ll be gone at least two days.
Thank you for giving me the day, Master. I’ll need to pack.I made a mental note to check the agenda to see what clothing I’d need.
I will have someone else pack for you, and I’ll update you on the agenda on the plane. The evening is yours. We’ll leave Homewood at midnight tonight. Wheels up around 12:30.
Has Silver been told?
Yes. She’s playing video games in the downstairs game room.
I extracted myself from my secure sleeping quarters and put dress pants and a shirt on, but left my feet bare. I’d been taught that bare feet implies intimacy. It didn’t seem to always be the case in this country, but either way, it seemed appropriate. I walked to the game room and sat beside her.
“I think I have maybe three or four minutes until I finish this level, and then I can save my progress.”
He was behind a boulder, shooting at zombies, and eventually, he made a run for it in the same direction the zombies had come, scrambling up a cliff, running across a plateau. He shot some more zombies, ran to the left and climbed a huge tower, and then leapt to grab a helicopter as it flew past.
“Damn,finally. You have to get the timing exactly right. If you spend too long on the tower, you get attacked by the dinosaur bird things, and if you’re too late for the helicopter, you still get attacked by them.” He went through a menu to save the game, walked his controller to a line of them, and plugged it in to charge it.
“Okay, I’m yours until you have to leave. I’ve eaten, but I don’t think you’ve fed? Do you think I can maybe be part of the feeding? Or at least watch?”
I got the distinct impression once that Silver sometimes enjoyed topping, and I knew who was on my feeding schedule today, so I said, “There’s a male submissive here who enjoys pain. Would you enjoy doing CBT on him while I feed from him?”
He stared at me a few seconds. “Will that, like, flavor the blood for you?”
