Page 47 of Nexus
“Only because he pays me to. He doesn’t control me with magic like he does with you.”
“Pray there never comes a time when you find yourself in my position,” he said dolefully. “You wouldn’t enjoy being shackled to Lord Gilden.”
“I don’t know,” I mused, conjuring up an image of the dragon putting chains on me. “The idea has a certain appeal.”
He rolled his eyes at my wolfish grin. “Must you always think about sex when we discuss Lord Gilden?”
“It’s not my fault he’s so hot,” I protested. “Can you drop me off at the Den? I want to grab a beer or two before I head home.”
I’d given up on my plan to question Lenny about whether he’d heard of any conspiracies in the underworld. The fewer people who knew about my secret mission, the better off I’d be. While Drake couldn’t forbid me from talking about it, common sense told me to keep my mouth shut. The overlords had spies on our world who reported to the envoys who visited here regularly. If they caught wind that a champion like me was about to snatch a fragment of the magical scroll away from them, they would hunt me down relentlessly.
Neither of us were in the mood to chat during the short drive to the nightclub. Ruen dropped me off as requested, then drove away. Music thumped so loudly that I could feel it vibrating in my chest when I stepped through the door. Scanning the crowd, I nodded at my acquaintances, then headed for the bar. Lenny’s milky eye zeroed in on me, while the brown one watched the beer he was pouring. It was a bit creepy that he could see me through the thick cataract and move his eyes independently.
“Hey, Lenny,” I said when he was free. “What’s up?”
“Not my pecker,” he joked. “That thing fell off a decade ago.”
I snickered along with him, but privately thought that was too much information to share in public. “I’ll have a beer,” I requested.
“Coming right up,” the zombie said and his hands went to work. He was wearing a garish hot pink shirt and mustard yellow trousers, with rainbow suspenders.
“It’s good to see you’re supporting gay pride,” I complimented him.
“What?” he asked in confusion.
“Your rainbow suspenders,” I pointed out.
“How are they supporting gay pride?” he asked. “They just keep my trousers up.”
“You really need to get with the times, my friend,” I told him in amusement.
“I don’t watch TV,” he admitted. “Nothing seems to interest me much anymore.”
It had to be hard being the living dead. I wondered if his emotions had died along with his soul, but it would be rude to ask. He always seemed to be happy and he still had a sense of humor. Maybe he was faking it for his customers.
“Here you go,” he said, plonking a glass of beer in front of me.
I paid him for the drink, with a generous tip, then made room for the next patron. Leaning against the wall, I sipped my beer as I studied the crowd. Watching the couples kissing and groping on the dancefloor made me feel strangely lonely. I’d never had a real boyfriend and it was doubtful I’d ever have one. None of the Sterling women married or settled down. Now I knew why. My ancestors and mom had been created to produce a champion. It seemed their happiness hadn’t mattered at all.
Feeling bad for both myself and the rest of the women in my family, I decided to head home after I finished my beer. It was doubtful a job would come up, since Lord Gilden was busy organizing my secret trip to the underworld.
I put my empty glass on a table, then wended my way through the crowd to leave. After a fifteen-minute walk, I reached my apartment. I changed into comfortable clothes, then sat down on my couch with a mug of coffee. Firing up my console, I lost myself in a videogame.
Chapter Thirty-Six
MOM WAS ALREADY AWARE of my dream, so I figured it would be fine to tell her about my upcoming mission when I visited her the next day. “You’ll never guess where Lord Gilden is sending me on my next job,” I said as we sat down on our recliners.
“Do I even want to know?” she asked sardonically.
“I’m going to the first realm in the underworld.”
She stared at me, trying to figure out if I was joking or not. “You’re going where?” she exclaimed when I didn’t break into laughter. “No one ever comes back from the underworld. What is your boss thinking?”
“He’s trying to save our world from the apocalypse.”
Her face went a few shades paler. “Is this about your dream? Did you tell him about it?”
“Yeah. He knows everything. He’s sending Ruen and me to retrieve the fragments of the spell.”
