Page 89 of The Dragon With A Girl Tattoo
“—that he is going to fight anyone until he’s completely healed up,” I finished with a little glare at the demon.
“And speaking of you and Yrian, as membership lead, it’s my pleasure to officially welcome you to the Mates Union,” Aisling said, sipping some of the ice-cold champagne that Ysolde had passed around.
A smattering of polite applause rippled around the table, hindered mostly by the food everyone was consuming.
“As is traditional when a new mate joins, we have a few questions,” May said, peering at a strawberry feta dip before spooning some onto her plate.
“What kind of questions?”I asked, suddenly wary.
“What sexy time with a demigod is like,” Jim said with a rusty heh-heh-heh chuckle.“Do they do it better than others?Is there a magical O thing happening?Does it involve fire?”
“Right, that is the limit.I warned you earlier that you were being rude when you made comments about the likelihood of Yrian being insane because his mom clearly has issues, and you know better than to say something so out of line.You may spend a little time in the Akasha to go over your bad behaviors,” Aisling said, standing up in order to banish Jim.It had just enough time to snatch up its plate before it was sent away.“I’m so sorry, Becket.Jim isn’t normally this obnoxious.Please ignore its rudeness.”
“Am I late?Dammit!I am!”Charity emerged onto the patio where we were all seated, her smile twisting a little when she glanced at her watch.“I thought telling Stewart that it started half an hour early would get me here on time, but I was wrong.”
“Actually, you’re right on time.We started early, because Pavel is working on appetizers in his Cordon Bleu course right now, but there is plenty of food, so dive in,” Ysolde said, pouring Charity a glass of champagne.
“Oh, good, then my plan worked after all.Goodness, it all looks so delicious.My compliments to Pavel.Is that strawberry and feta with balsamic vinegar?I recently introduced the First Dragon to balsamic vinegar, and he’s become very fond of it.”Charity loaded her plate, and sat down with a smile shared amongst us all.
“And how is the First Dragon?”Phyllida, whom I had met earlier when she arrived with her dragon, Bastian, seemed fairly shy, but there was something about her that kept catching my notice.I realized after a few attempts to study her without being obnoxious that she had an interdict bound upon her.I wondered what that was about, but didn’t feel comfortable enough to ask.
“Well.He left this morning to help find his grandnephews, the Sons of Horus.And if it sounds like I capitalized those last words, it’s because I did.Horus is the son of the First Dragon’s brother Osiris, and his sons are troublemakers from way back who left their afterlife and are now in the mortal world.The First Dragon said they hadn’t done anything wrong yet, but he emphasized the wordyet, and we all know what that means.”
“He’s usually right about that sort of thing,” Ysolde said, nodding.
“I can’t stand this,” Aisling said suddenly, getting up and pulling out her phone.
“What’s wrong?”May asked her.
“I feel guilty about sending Jim to the Akasha for lipping off.It normally isn’t quite that obnoxious, and it just struck me that it’s probably acting out because it’s worried about Desi and Parisi.I think I’ll ask Amelie if she can take it for a couple of days, so it can chill and relax without worrying about what’s going on with family.”She moved off to make a phone call.
“There’s so much happening of late,” Phyllida said quietly, popping a bit of melon in her mouth.“What with fiery furies out after Yrian’s blood, and Deus escaping and going to ground so that even Bastian and the blue dragons can’t find him, and Jim’s parents and all.It’s terribly exciting, but I’m really not used to such an adventurous life.”
“And then there’s Yrian’s kitten,” I said, glancing at my phone to check the time.I’d made an appointment for Yrian and me to visit a shelter that afternoon, in order to look for a companion for his kitten.
“Yrian has a kitten?”Phyllida asked, her eyes wide.“I’ve never heard of a wyvern liking cats.I mean, Bastian loves all animals, and I’d like us to get a couple of dogs once our home in Oregon is finished, but it just seems kind of odd that someone as powerful as Yrian would fall for a kitten.”
“I have zero doubt that the kitten will wrap him around its little finger.Or rather, claw.He loves cats,” I explained.“He said watching cat videos kept him sane while he was imprisoned.When we saw one for sale in the Duat, he couldn’t resist.It’s at a very expensive cattery in London for the few days we’re staying here, because Pavel’s mate, Holland, is allergic.”
“Right, Jim situation sorted.I gave Amelie temporary powers over it, and she was going to summon it right away because she’s taking Cecile out for a day trip down the Seine, and she said Jim will enjoy that.What did I miss while I was giving in to demon lord angst?”Aisling asked as she retook her seat.
“Yrian loves cats.Phyllida wants a couple of dogs once her house is built.This lemon pepper hummus is to die for,” May summarized, dipping a piece of naan into the hummus.“Also, Deus is still missing, and I don’t know what’s up with Yrian’s mom.”
“No one knows, other than she’s definitely not in the Duat anymore,” I answered, a pang of worry souring the content feeling that had settled on me once we’d arrived at Ysolde’s house.“Also, I’m hoping that Yrian will want us to live in England.We haven’t talked about where we want to end up finding a home, but I’ve always been an Anglophile.”
“Are you American?”Phyllida asked.“You sound like you are.”
“Technically, I was born in Peru, hence my surname, but we lived in Northern California for most of my childhood,” I answered.“My mom and I were both addicted to British TV shows, though.”
“Being in England would make you handy for mates’ meetings, although the really big ones we do what the men do, and have a Zoom call.The more social ones, like this, are in person only,” Aisling commented, glancing at her phone when it pinged.“Oh, good, Amelie already has Jim, and says it’s flaked out on the floor next to Cecile, happily bitching about its life.”
“Who is Cecile?”I couldn’t help but ask.
“An elderly Welsh corgi,” May answered.“Aisling and Jim are working on a way to make her immortal, because Jim says it won’t be able to go on if it loses one more person it loves.”
“That’s so sweet,” I said, blinking back a few tears.
“It is, and Amelie is go with the immortal-corgi idea, since obviously we would take her in if anything happened to Amelie, but it’s still a pain in the bitch to get someone to work with us on the immortality spell.”Aisling gave me a wan smile.“If you know of a magister who is open to that, please let me know.”
