“I can arrange that.” Father stuck his hands in his pockets, jacket creasing as he crossed his legs.
“Someone neutral, preferably. Perhaps ask for the court’s recommendation.” I made another note.
“I’ll need footage from the stairwell.”
“Are you certain you didn’t, you know? Try anything? He was sporting quite the erection, from what I heard.” Father took a few steps into my office, glancing about judgmentally. “Reallyshould take one of the main offices for some sunlight. You’re too pale. It’s unhealthy.”
I ignored the latter comment. “Quite certain. His mere proximity to me caused revulsion. It was all Gre could do not to fend the male from me territorially.”
“It remains to be seen. I requested footage from that stairwell yesterday. I’d intended on having it by the time you came back, but you’re here early.” Father didn’t seem pleased by it. “Already wanting away from your mate?”
“There was nothing left to do. My belongings were moved in, house organized, rules and budget set. We are already functioning like clockwork. It remains to be seen if we’re a fit, though.” I scratched another note. “A calendar of my estrus…”
I pulled out my new phone and thumbed through my apps to the one that tracked my cycles. I followed a cycle similar to that of succubi. Their cycles moved eight months apart as mine did, but theirs usually came in seasons, Hell’s winter. Mine moved by eight months but was not in the mating seasons of succubi. “Mine is due in… Two months. Likely, he reacted to my newly mated pheromones. Bodies do strange things when—”
“Strange things when they die, too.” Draevus glared at Ausmius who slid low along the wall, pantomiming being sick and gagging.
“Ausmius, please. The melodramatics aren’t helping my headache.” I waved him off and brought my fingertips to my temple to rub as I ticked down another note.
“He so rarely speaks. He has the capability to. And why the headache? Do I need to call a healer or a physician?” Father hissed at the demon, and he sank into a crack once more.
“He speaks to Gre often. The mage respects him and soothes him like a charmer.” I huffed a laugh. “It looks promising.”
“And yet you’ve made no thought to move in with me or find your own place. You sidled into his life so willingly. Nohesitation. It looks good to me, Esmeray.” Draevus stood and smiled. “In any case, the good news is that all the cases but two have been dropped by Lymmings. You and Cornelius Chase Atwood.”
“Who is Mage Atwood?” I thumbed through my files and selected a sheet of paper. Another hybrid—llama. Body transmogrification. He was a doctor, a surgeon, and a mage. Quite the combination, but many hospitals wouldn’t hire a hybrid who defaulted to a nonhuman feature.Too much hair. Unsanitary.I skimmed the document, halting at a comment about being a devout student of thenecrollamacon. My face involuntarily scrunched up. “Disgusting.”
“Hmm?” Father stopped in my doorway, and I extended the paper toward him for a cursory glance, where I tapped my finger.
“Rude. As their legal representatives, we should tell them comments like this are discriminatory. I’ll personally call the Lowell Valley Coven. Were there other comments like this?” Father pulled up his phone and poised to start an email.
“Gre’s file had a note calling him aNeckromancer.” My upper lip twitched, reflecting back at me from the silver sheen of a stapler carrier.
“Neck Romancer.” He mouthed the words as if they tasted bad and wandered out, head shaking. His thumb moved purposefully across his phone screen.
I stared down at my paperwork and sighed, moving to my computer to start the process of covering my own ass and looking into the other hybrid.
It didn’t take me long to review a few documents and find long lists of discussions from members of The Church that had long pages of discussions and anger over his practice due to his focus on body dysmorphia. As a hybrid, himself, the issue likely hit close to home.
“Ausmius?” I glanced over, raising a brow. “What’s your take on this?”
Ausmius raised his head from the crease of the wall and floor and frowned before wilting over limply. He gestured at me to leave the office, shooing at me to go home, pantomiming sleeping and the like.
“I’ve slept plenty. You just want to voyeur and watch Gre and I fool about.”
Ausmius threw his head back and mimed what I thought was a scream until it became apparent it was only an elongated sigh of exasperation.
“I’m eating meat. Gre is giving you wine. What more do you want?” I folded my arms as he gestured and slouched, pushing his stomach out.
“I’m not getting fat.”
He flailed his hands again, pantomimed holding a child.
“Not having a baby, either. It’s not part of my five-year plan. After, we can evaluate.” I glared at him, and he sidled up to the shadow of a filing cabinet and beat his head against it so violently that the cabinet itself rattled.
“No! You can wait for a new host. I don’t have time to train a child to contain you. You can suffer with me until I’m ready.” I took a deep breath and held two fingers up, concentrating my thaumaturgic energies into a flame. “Now, pipe down and let me work or I’ll pin you down.”
Ausmius narrowed his jack-o’-lantern eyes at me and audibly growled in frustration.
