I reached out and gave her a hug. “I’m good,” I said again. “I really am. I just need some alone time.”
She hugged me back, and I could tell from the tension in her body that she was trying to intuit the truth of my words.
“Just. Give me a day or so, okay?”
She drew back, her hands still on my arms, and searched my face again. “Okay,” she agreed.
“Look who I found!” Jean walked into the room, the dragon pig curled up happily in her arms, enjoying the scratching behind the ears it was getting.
“What was it eating?” Ryder asked.
“Nothing. Because who’s a cute little piggy dragon? You’s a cute little piggy dragon,” Jean cooed.
The dragon pig soaked up the praise like a little pink sponge.
“Okay, buddy,” Delaney said, scooping the beast out of Jean’s arms. “We need you to find any demon who is inside Ordinary’s boundaries. Specifically, Bathin and Xtelle. If they’re inside Ordinary, I want you to bring them here. Got it?”
The piggy wagged his curly little tail and squeaked, a puff of smoke drifting from his nostrils.
He disappeared with apopand a whoosh of wind, as if massive wings had suddenly beat upward.
“Well, that was—” Jean said.
And just like that, the dragon pig was back, sitting in front of Delaney and staring up at her adoringly.
“No demons inside Ordinary?” she asked.
The dragon pig oinked.
“Nice job.” She looked around the room, spotted the kidney-shaped barf bucket that all hospitals seemed to include with every stay, and offered it to the dragon pig as a treat.
The dragon pig opened its sweet little mouth and…yeah, I don’t know exactly how, but it swallowed the bucket down in one go.
It sneezed, which would have been adorable, but two little spouts of flame shot out its nose.
“You okay there?” Delaney bent and the dragon pig jumped up into her arms, wriggling around until its ears were in position for her to scratch. It grumbled, a deep, contented growl that almost sounded like a possessive purr.
“No demons,” I said.
“Yeah, if they were here, this little beast would have found them.”
My shoulders relaxed but the tangle of emotions I was ignoring rolled around inside me like tumbleweed made of barbed wire. “You’re headed home with Ryder. And Jean?”
“Present,” she said as she tapped something on her phone screen.
“You’re back on parade duty.”
She glanced up, and slowly nodded. “Yeah. That makes sense. All of you are going home, right? If I drive by just to make sure, you’re all going to be there?”
“Yep.” Ryder dropped his feet to the floor and stood, stretching and yawning. “I can be on call, if you need me.”
“So can I,” I added, “but not Delaney.”
Delaney rolled her eyes. “Yes, I’ll take a full twenty-four hours off. But I’ll be at work tomorrow.”
We’d need her. The parade was just the start of a full weekend of clam-karaoke and salmon feasts.
“All right,” Jean motioned toward the door. “I’ll drop you off at your house.”
