Page 63 of Dragon in Denial
He kept drinking, looking around the room as he did so. “I know you,” he said, pointing at the beautiful dragon who had followed Noah into the room.
She balked, backing away until she bumped into one of the Elders.
“That’s Maria,” Ketu said. “She’s part of your colony too.”
The reeve shook his head. “She’s more familiar than that. Hers is the only face in here I really recognize. Why is that?”
Maria burst into tears. “Darius made me do it.”
“Darius? My son? Where is—is that him, over there on the floor? Why is he curled up in a ball? Oh hell, did he get into trouble again? That kid. I sure hope he outgrows this need to pick fights before I die. Not exactly reeve material the way he is.”
“What did Darius make you do?” Antoinette asked Maria.
She shook her head.
“For crying out loud, just tell us. You’ve already implicated yourself,” Delilah snapped.
Maria’s eyes widened and landed on Ketu, who gave her a reassuring nod.
“I’ve been…I’ve been giving him the herbs. That’s my job. Every six hours, ‘round the clock. I haven’t been on a vacation in nearly ten years.”
“I volunteer to take you on a vacation,” Rahu piped up, raising his hand like he was in class. “A nice, long one.”
“I wouldn’t believe him if I were you,” Delilah said. “I bet he’s like the other toy in those Energizer Bunny commercials. The one that stops before it finishes.”
“Seriously,” Rahu said, swinging around to face her. “What the hell is your problem? Do we need to go into another room so I can prove to you that you’re wrong?”
“Even though I don’t acknowledge her as such, the woman is, biologically, my mother,” Gabe said. “So your not very veiled suggestions about having sex with her are pretty fucking gross, Rahu.”
“I don’t actually want to, not with her, anyway, but her accusations are really starting to piss me off.”
Delilah shrugged.
“Now if Maria here wants to—”
“Rahu,” Ketu snapped, and he shut up.
Antoinette stepped into the middle of the room and addressed the Elders. “We have Maria’s testimony, plus Delilah can verify—”
“Stupid bitch!” Darius uncurled from his crouched position and lunged, reaching for Maria, who screamed. Antoinette shoved her out of the way and caught the guy with the same uppercut he’d hit her with earlier.
Pain exploded in her knuckles, but it still felt damn good.
His back slammed against the wall and he stood there, breathing heavily, his narrow-eyed glare sweeping the room. “I’m the reeve of this fucking colony,” he snarled.
The female Elder with the curlers in her hair lifted her pointer finger. “Actually, even if your father was dead, which he clearly isn’t, we have final say in that matter. And I think I can speak for all of us when I say,no way in hell, sonny.”
The rest of the Elders nodded.
While this wasn’t playing out exactly as Antoinette had anticipated—she’d assumed the reeve was dead—that proclamation was still exactly what she’d wanted. A promise that Darius would not become reeve. Ever.
Trennon threw off the covers. “Somebody help me up. I need to take a piss.”
“Here,” Maria said, tugging a walker from behind a partially closed door. It was one of those kind with a seat built into the design. “I usually help him out of bed and have him sit here, and then I push him to the bathroom.”
Although she guided the walker toward the bed, Maria didn’t seem inclined to actually do what she’d explained, so Antoinette offered her arm to the elderly man. As if this process was something he did habitually, the reeve used his hold on Antoinette’s arm to tug himself toward the edge of the bed, and then he turned sideways and slid onto the seat of the walker.
She pushed him into the bathroom, which she noted was equipped with aluminum bars attached to the wall next to the toilet.
