Chapter Twenty-Six
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“Bernard, I know it’s a dragon lying there,” Jac said hurriedly, standing just outside her cottage after spending all night recapturing some of the world’s deadliest snakes, “but I don’t have time to explain. I have a plane to catch, okay?”
His eyes remained glued to the enormous ten-ton lizard. “Tha-that’s a dragon,” he stammered again.
“Yes, but I need you to focus on the animals…” Her voice trailed off. He still wasn’t listening. “Bernard!” She snapped her fingers in his face.
Bernard’s glazed-over eyes slowly unlatched from the flying battleship on the ground.
“Can you hold down the fort until I get back?” she begged. “Please? I shouldn’t be more than a day or two. I hope.”
“You’re leaving?” he asked.
While she’d been collecting snakes last night, bawling out her eyes over Dash, something Cimil and Damien had discussed popped in her head. They’d mention a new body for that ghost, Sky. A body she no longer wanted.
That was when the idea hit her! We’ll give the body to Dash. He can have it! No, she wasn’t into women, but this wasn’t about sex, romance, or anything like that. She couldn’t stand the idea of Dash being stuck between worlds forever. Freeing him was all that mattered. And who knew? Maybe over time, a male body might come up for grabs. Not that she knew if any of this would work.
Could a disembodied vanity demon’s soul be summoned and then inserted into a new human shell? How were the bodies made?
Either way, going to Cimil and asking for help was a bad idea, but Damien seemed to know his way around her tricks and traps. Unfortunately, when Jac called him last night, he’d completely brushed her off. Never even called me back! Then he stopped answering his cell. This was too important to sit around waiting for action. Especially because that new body could go to someone else.
“Yes. I have to get to LA. Can you take care of the sanctuary?” she asked.
Bernard nodded.
“Good. I’ll call you later.” She grabbed her suitcase.
“What about that?” He pointed at the dead dragon.
“I don’t know. Just pretend it’s not there. Not like he can hurt you.”
Suddenly, steam rose from the surface of its flesh, and the dragon corpse began melting.
The two watched in fascination and horror as the body broke down into a desiccated husk and then into dust. After a moment, a gentle breeze carried it all away.
And that explains why no one has ever found evidence of dragons . She wondered if the same thing happened to dead aliens. What would happen to her when she died?
“Okay, well, dragon-body problem solved,” she said. “I’ll call you from LA.” She rushed to her truck, dragging her suitcase. “Oh, and could you take care of the last four snakes? They’re still hiding somewhere,” she called out. “Maybe in the storage building! They’re the types that like to pop out and attack instead of roaming.”
“Which snakes?” Bernard asked.
“Two tiger snakes, the king cobra, and the saw-scaled viper. But don’t worry! I wrangled the others already!” She could hear Bernard swearing up a panic-storm as she slid into the truck. She rolled down her window. “I have plenty of antivenin in the infirmary!” At least she hoped she did. Funds were low, and she hadn’t been able to restock lately. “Better you don’t get bit, though!”
She drove off.
Damien shut off his phone, took a long hot shower, and sat on his balcony to watch the sun come up.
To say he felt betrayed was a colossal understatement. Sky had cut him out of her life to get what she wanted: a new body, her family back, and a fresh start. There’d been no discussion with him, no considering other options, and no trust given.
I can’t believe she dumped me again . At least, that was how it felt. He couldn’t blame her for wanting those things, but somehow she’d absolved herself of all guilt by accusing him of hiding his feelings. She claimed that he hadn’t fought for her.
Ridiculous! It boggled the mind. He’d told her how much she meant, but more importantly, he’d shown her. He had not pulled the guilt card or gotten angry when she expressed her desire to return to investigative journalism. He’d put her needs first. Let’s not forget the hell Cimil put me through to score a new body for Sky that first time.
He’d never worked so hard to do right by a woman. Excluding the killing-her thing with my SUV.
Damien scratched his head. I just don’t get it. Did women want men to devolve into angry cavemen when relationships encountered bumps, or did they want men to be supportive?
“I’m cancelling my subscription to Women’s Self-Love Weekly .” He’d read that estrogen-infested trash for months, all because he believed it was a man’s job to be strong for his woman. Not so easy for a two-hundred-year-old deadly weapon. The exercise tips were good, though. My ass has never looked better.
If there was one takeaway from this mess, it was that his gut had been right. Deep down, he knew they weren’t meant to be. Too many obstacles. Too many cosmic forces keeping them apart.
“Hey,” squeaked a tiny voice.
Pet sat on the balcony’s railing, her lavender wings deflated at her sides.
“What’s the matter? Did you run out of amphibians to molest in my garden?”
Pet shook her glum little head. “The garden orgy is still on, but I’m just not in the mood.”
A sex fairy not in the mood. “Why? And before you reply, I do not want to know if it’s because you’ve contracted fairpees again.”
“No,” she said glumly. “You can only get that once. Never goes away.”
Vile. “Then?”
“Sky said I had to go away. She said her new life had to be clean, happy, and beautiful. She said I was an ugly, diseased little cockroach, and she never wants to see me again.”
Sky wasn’t completely wrong, but it was a little harsh. “I’ve seen very nasty roaches, Pet,” he said reassuringly, “and you’re nothing like them.” Because I can get rid of those.
She looked up at him with big, blue, hopeful eyes. “You think I’m pretty?”
“Hit the sex-brakes, tiny porn star. I would not go that far.”
She covered her walnut-sized face with her penny-sized hands and bawled. Damien watched as Pet’s sobs turned into a full-on meltdown, her tears drenching her tiny white toga.
His chest constricted. Dear gods. Why does it affect me when women weep? “Pet, you’re not ugly. Stop your crying.”
“No? But I heard you! You think I’m disgusting.”
Damien rolled his eyes. “I think you are avoiding the true issue here: Sky dumped us all.”
“She sure did.” MF came up behind him with Maxton in tow. She plopped down on one of the overstuffed chairs and put her booted feet up on the coffee table. Maxton sat next to her.
“Great,” he said flatly. “You’re all here.” Can’t a man sulk in peace in the comfort of his obscenely large mansion? “We’re just missing Bonbon and Gorg.”
“Heya, boss. I heard the bad news.” Bonbon trotted up. “And Gorgonzolina likes to be called by her full name.”
Damien sighed with resignation. They were never going to leave him alone, were they?
“So, what’s the plan?” MF asked.
“Plan?” Damien stood. “Well, I intend to sleep for twenty-four hours. Then I’m going to my shop.”
“Damien,” Maxton said in his deep, low, haunting voice, “are you not alarmed by what we saw?”
Hell yes. Before, there was only one set of gods, who’d thankfully retired. Now there were two of each—excluding Cimil, unless she’d made a backup. Who knew what the outcome of all this would be?
“I would classify the event as diabolical on Cimil’s part and catastrophic for the rest of us,” Damien said. “The original gods will not be pleased about being replaced. They are far too narcissistic to permit being sidelined.”
“How did Cimil even pull it off?” MF asked.
“She took all those 3D body-printing machines and loaded them up with sack juice plus some dragon eggs,” Pet said. “I watched her do it. She said that the splooge and yolks were rich in powerful supernatural building blocks. She has an entire walk-in freezer full of the stuff. So yummy.”
Everyone except Damien winced with disgust. He was more interested in what Cimil planned to do with all that material. Can’t be anything good. Perhaps she was planning to build an army after all. Like he said, the original gods were not going to be happy about being replicated. She’d need something to fight back with.
“She made new gods out of that? Impressive,” said Maxton.
“But what does Cimil want with you, Damien?” MF asked.
Sky said that was part of the deal with Cimil. She had to exit Damien’s life for good. “I do not care,” he said. “I will never lift a finger to help Cimil or Sky again.”
They all chuckled. Apparently his posse of degenerates did not believe him.
“No, I really mean it this time. You’ll see. Now, if you do not mind, I need to get some sleep.” It had been a very long few days, and his heart had been stomped on yet again.
Though, oddly, this time, it wasn’t as bad. He had been given closure, and it was the one silver lining. Sky’s decision to disappear from his life showed exactly how she felt, and it explained her sudden change of plans back in Dallas. She’d never intended to cross over permanently. She’d only said that to explain her absence from their lives. He guessed that once they all returned to LA, Amelia and Miguel would have been miraculously freed. Sky would have said goodbye, and none of them would ever have known about her side deal with Cimil.
At least I didn’t trash a car for her in a fake death. Yes, perhaps it all worked out for the best.