I shiver. “Definitely best to avoid him. I think I’ll take a stroll.”
“We can go dancing tonight at the Demon Lounge,” Zil suggests. “It’s been so long since we’ve hung out.”
“I’ll be there.”
I walk on, soaking in the sights and sounds of home. There is something comforting about it all—the screams and moans, the scent of burning flesh, fire lakes, and lava flows.Ah, home.I do miss the sunshine of the human realm though.
I turn a corner and stumble onto a group of demons surrounding Maggard. Ducking behind a boulder, I tune my senses to focus solely on him. I’m dying to get the dish on what he’s mad about. He doesn’t fuck with the human realm much anymore, so it must be juicy. So I like a little gossip. Sue me.
“Seems to be a dragon,” one of the demons says. “The same one taking artifacts from our cave in Columbia.”
I perk up at that. A dragon?
“What is the dragon’s name?”
“All I’ve found is his human name so far,” another demon says. “Macguire Drake.”
I tense.Ah, fuck.
“Belongs to a big clan of surly lizards,” the demon continues. “They won’t be easy to take on.”
“I don’t give a fuck,” Maggard bellows, shaking the stone walls around us. “No one steals from me. Who the fuck does this dragon think he is?”
“A kleptomaniac?” one demon suggests.
“All dragons are kleptomaniacs,” another says in a bored voice.
The demons titter and make rude comments about dragons, making my skin crawl in a surprising way. I’m tempted to yell at them to stop, but even I’m not stupid enough to face Maggard when he’s mad.
“Find the dragon and bring him to me,” Maggard says, cutting through the noise. “I will make an example of him and drop his dead body at his mother’s feet.” He growls and the sound makes the ground beneath my feet vibrate. “And if you find my stuff, take it back.”
The demons run off in different directions, leaving me stunned.
Fuck. Fuck, fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. This is not good. The little twerp fucked with the wrong demon.
It’s none of my business. He got himself into this situation, so he just has to deal with it now.
I walk back to my room with images of the baby dragon dancing in my head. He’s just a kid. When a vision of him dead plays in my mind, I can almost hear the painful wail from beautiful Valentino. I should warn him.
No. I should not do that. I have a demon code to uphold. But… I bite my lip. One little warning wouldn’t hurt. Wait. I can’t. Valentino will roast me the minute he lays eyes on me.
Ooh. I could send another demon to tell him, but no. Valentino will probably kill any demon in his path based on the remains of the hotel room he left behind.
Well fuck. Do I just sit here and let the kid die over some likely gaudy trinkets? It would destroy Valentino to lose hisbrother, but am I willing to put my own ass on the line for a dragon with sticky fingers? Ugh. I may be a self-centered diva, but I’m not heartless. Weird, I know.
I walk past Zil and Bingruth in the same spot where I left them. “I have to pass on tonight, guys. Got some sudden business to attend to.”
Zil smiles and rubs my arm. “We’ll catch up. Be careful though, huh?”
“I will.”
With a heavy sigh, I flick my wrist and return to my human glamour. Guess I’m going human-side to face one pissed off dragon.
Chapter Eight
VALENTINO
My ears twitch at the soft sound of Mac’s bare feet against the wood floor just on the other side of the indestructible locked door. What is he even still doing here? I thought we’d decided he’d stay with Lord for now.
