Page 19 of The Dragon With A Girl Tattoo
Silence fell over the group, only the faint drowsy buzzing of bees audible.
“Dragons are seriously the most annoying of beings,” Ysolde said, frowning at Baltic.He frowned right back at her.
“Jim?Since the men are being their usual tight-lipped selves and refusing to answer a simple and wholly reasonable question, why don’t you do the honors?”Aisling asked, nudging her dog.“To whom do those two demons belong?”
“Eh,” Jim said, sending a worried look at the First Dragon.“I don’t know if I should say.It’s gonna make everyone pissed, and then I won’t get a burger, because you’ll all be yelling and arguing and picking on me.”
“I never let anyone pick on you,” Aisling told it, looking outraged before she qualified it with, “I am the only one allowed to do that, except Drake on occasion, and that’s only because you’ve lipped off to him or done something heinous to his favorite leather couch.Now, answer the question, and yes, that’s an order.”
Jim sighed a put-upon sigh, and lay down on the cool tile floor.“They belong to Bael.”
The dragons all froze, all but Baltic, who also heaved a sigh and moved over to stand behind his wife, his hands on her shoulders.
Aisling swore in French.
“Can you do it?”I asked the First Dragon.“Can you take care of them for me?”
“Take care of?”he said in his slow, measured tone.“Define what that means.”
“Get them off my back.Make them stop following me all over the US and Europe.”I sighed, suddenly feeling as if I were hollow inside, the outer shell all that seemed real.“Distract them with something or someone else so that I can stop running all the time.”
“That is not what you want,” the First Dragon answered, his eyes dark and watchful, like he was waiting for me to have an epiphany.
My gaze fell to my hands again, and absently, I sketched out a new glamour, one that hid my hair color (a shade of red most commonly called ginger) and facial features.“I’ll take what I can get,” was all I answered.
Silence fell again, but it was a pregnant silence, one filled with the dragons glancing amongst one another, but no one speaking, clearly giving the floor to the First Dragon.
The august person, for the first time since I’d sat down, let his gaze rest a few seconds on the dragons before it settled back on me.“In the normal course of events, my kin are able to destroy wrath demons, but the two who seek you for their master are different.They have more power than they ought.”
“Can Bael do that from the Duat?”Aisling asked.“I thought the whole point of trapping him there was that he couldn’t do bad things in the mortal world.”
“He is confined, but that does not mean he is powerless,” the First Dragon said, asking Baltic, “Did you feel anything about the wrath demons?”
“Only what you did—they were too powerful for what they were,” he answered, his expression now looking as thoughtful as the First Dragon’s.“But I did not think that Bael could give away power outside of Duat.”
The First Dragon was silent for a good two minutes before he spoke.“He should not be able to do so, but I suspect he has found a way around the protections Osiris keeps for his underworld.He has been ...distracted of late, and perhaps has not been as attentive as he should be.”
“Are you saying that taking down Candy and Andy is impossible?”I asked, the tiny flicker of hope that had lit inside me at the thought of peace sputtering to a smoky end.
“No,” he said after a few moments’ thought.“It is possible to destroy them, but it will not be as easy as any other wrath demon.The kin will require Yrian’s contribution to achieve that goal.I agree to your terms.You will release my son, and in exchange, the dragonkin will protect you from the demons until such time as they have been dealt with.”
A little murmur went amongst the dragons, but it was the vampire that surprised me the most.“The Dark Ones have traditionally not involved ourselves much with the business of dragons, but I accept responsibility for the demons’ presence at the festival.For that reason, I offer the services of my Beloved and myself.She is a Summoner of great repute, and I have some knowledge of demons and their lords.”
The First Dragon looked at him for a long four seconds, but before he said more than, “All help is welcome,” the garden and patio and gorgeous Italian villa faded into a slightly smoky-scented night, the harsh stage lights casting deep shadows from the trailers.
“Wow,” the woman named Allie said, leaning into her vampire.“That was intense.I’ve never seen an actual god before.”
“Demigod,” Baltic and Ysolde said together, then turned to look at me.
I slumped back against the trailer as the young man named Brom loped up, his girlfriend in tow.“Sullivan?Where did you go?We looked all over for you, but everyone was gone.Oh.Is this the siren?”He nodded toward me.
“My mom was a siren, not me.I just inherited good singing abilities, but other than that, yes, it’s me,” I said with a sudden pulling sense that warned I would need rest soon.It was always so after a performance, especially one where I had to expend the energy to escape into the Beyond.Idly, I noticed that the girl Pixie wore a glamour to hide an extra set of arms, marking her as a poltergeist.The glamour looked like a commonly used lower-grade one, obviously about to wear off.Without thinking, I started drawing a proper glamour.
“The First Dragon took us to his digs,” Jim the demon said, wandering over to snuffle Brom.“Hey, is that ice cream place still open?”
“What are you doing?”the green-eyed dragon asked me, his gaze suspicious.
“Creating a glamour,” I answered, nodding toward Pixie.“Hers is about to fall off, and I expect with so many mortals around, she wouldn’t want her extra arms showing.”
