Chapter 4 #2
“Drigo when he was waiting for things to settle down last night before he left. Honey didn’t want to leave until he was gone, and he wouldn’t leave until her and Lucy were gone, so it was quite a standoff until the alpha showed up and Drigo claimed you as his protected employee.
Demons don’t usually swear to protect a human. ”
I tried to process. The alpha showed up? Drigo was in a standoff with Lucy and Honey? I was suddenly so glad I’d been unconscious through that whole thing. So awkward to throw up in the middle of threats of violence. “Humans don’t usually steal from demons.” Obviously.
“I wouldn’t think that you’d steal from anyone. You were always a stickler.”
I gave him a wan smile. He’d warned me from dancing at certain places where the men were nothing more than monsters in suits. Funny that he’d been so right. “It was an emergency.”
“I’m sure it was. Like last night was an emergency. You wouldn’t leave the house for anything else.”
I glanced at him, looking for the accusation, but Tom didn’t accuse, he just listened and gave advice if you asked for it. “What do you know?” I whispered.
“Nothing. You should eat your egg.”
I sighed heavily and cracked it lightly on the dash then started peeling off the shells. “You actually married Gloria. You must be really weird.”
“Oh, I am, but not for marrying my multi-faceted diamond.”
I blinked in delight at Tom. “That was practically poetic.”
“She inspires me.” He said it so matter-of-fact. Who knew that Tom had it in him?
“You aren’t really the immortal descendant of Van Helsing, are you?”
“I am.”
“Oh. Why do you run a movie theater?”
“It just turned out that way. It was actually run by this necromancer who was luring children to him, and I cleaned it out and then settled there when I saw how monsters were drawn to it. To the humans who came to be afraid, or fall in love, or whatever other vicarious emotions they wanted to feel.”
“Huh. So it’s actually owned by a necromancer?”
“No, I sorted out the title years ago. The necromancer killed the actual owner, but naturally the title didn’t transfer.”
“That makes sense. You taught me everything I know about running a business, but there were always gaps in your business plan that I didn’t understand, like how much you spent on disinfectant and acetylene.
Roberta had to help me with all of that.
” Roberta was a genius when it came to business.
She’d been with me for years, but I kept expecting her to leave me to start up her own brilliant scheme.
He grunted. “You’ve done well in your business. Gloria is very proud of you. She thinks you’ll have a whole chain of Candy Kingdoms across the country.” He sounded so proud of Gloria, like her existence was its own miracle.
I flinched. I’d always avoided that kind of expansion because I was avoiding Dorian. And now I was in his claws. Literal claws. Shudder. “Yeah. It’s been a definite growth experience.”
“Did you ever finish college?”
I shook my head and took a bite of egg. It tasted like a hard-boiled egg without salt.
Still, it was comforting to know that things like boiled eggs and Tom never changed.
“I used Dorian’s money to start a business.
I’d already taken a lot of classes, and could do research for everything else I needed to know. ”
“Because you suddenly needed security.”
I studied him, but he was driving, not looking at me. “Yeah. You won’t tell him that I had his baby, will you?”
He shrugged, clearly not surprised by my confession. “None of my business. However, at some point you’ll probably want to clear the debt between the two of you. No money is worth the price you paid, trying to raise a demon on your own.”
“He’s not a…” I ran a hand through my hair. If Dorian didn’t deny he was a demon, why should I? “He’s not evil.”
“Maybe not. Most demons who aren’t evil stayed out of our world. Then again, with the Zombie Queen being how she is, we’ve been getting a lot more variety in the last century.”
“Variety sounds exciting.” Nauseating. I might never eat again.
“He was taken at what age?”
“Three.”
“And Catharine’s been looking into it? Smart girl. She manages to uncover trouble without getting into it herself.”
“You won’t tell Gloria, will you?”
“Tell her what? She’s already seen your future. She also saw you with Drigo last night. Your reaction to him wasn’t subtle.”
I winced. “It wasn’t?”
“He also claimed you as his to protect. And he didn’t hunt you down after you stole a lot of money from him. I’m not saying that you can trust a demon, but he has made his position very clear.”
“It doesn’t feel very clear.”
“You are safe from him and from anyone who would hurt you as long as he can protect you.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “He’s a demon. Who knows why they do anything? But those spikes? He’s going to have trouble with those.”
“Trouble with spikes? Will they be hard to sleep on or what? Probably doorway issues. He was already too tall to get through most of them.”
He laughed a dry laugh. “They’ll draw every other demon out. They’re king spikes.”
“You’re not making any sense.”
“Demons don’t make sense in general, but in this case, it’s a matter of ascension.
Not sure what they actually ascend to, since they’re supposed to be natural cave dwellers, but very beautiful caves, of course.
He’s got his king spikes, so other demons will naturally try to kill him.
He’ll defeat them or die. If he kills all those who challenge him, he’ll have a very small kingdom, but it’s practically negligible anyway. ”
“Ah. So because he got spikes, he’s going to have to fight other demons who don’t want him to be the king? So he’s really the king of demons?”
“That’s right.”
“Because he has spikes? How does that make sense?”
“Well, there hasn’t been a king for a long time. When the last king got his spikes he was already the ruler, but the spikes were an additional clincher.”
“How do you know so much about demons?”
“In Originali Daemonium. It’s a book. You can borrow it if you know Latin.”
“Oh. I have an app that can translate languages. But I won’t have time for reading old books, not when I have to run my business and work at Dorian’s fight club.”
“The Den. Yeah, that’s a peculiar bit, you wanting to work there around all those monsters, particular the little demon.”
I sighed heavily. “He’s not that little.”
“No, he’s not. Your relationship will come out eventually.
I wonder what Drigo’s reaction will be. As Drigo, he’ll be a logical businessman, but as the demon king, would he claim you as his mate and keep you enslaved for the rest of your life?
Some demon kings were like that. Depends on the tribe, of course. ”
I took another bite of egg. “I’ll just ask him what his demon tribe was when I take over the paperwork this afternoon.”
“Good idea. Try not to react to Straldi. I know the tentacles are pretty freaky, but he’s a sensitive soul and it hurts his feelings.” He pulled up in front of my Candy Kingdom and gave me a nice smile.
I stared at him. For some reason hearing that the tentacle bearded man had delicate feelings was the clincher.
I was officially not in Kansas anymore. “Thanks. I’ll be sure to be more sensitive.
” I grabbed my stuff out of the back, my Marie Antoinette gear, and slowly got out of the cupcake van, looking up into the abyss of sky. Why was outside so terrifying?
“If you need a hand, give Gloria a call,” he said with a wave and then pulled out.