“Finn,” Soren says, panting slightly. “What happened?”
I chuff at him again.What do you think happened, asshole? We had a breach, I think to myself.
I know that the two of them have their own little mental link, the bro memo, as I like to call it, but that doesn’t stretch to me. But I guess it’s only polite to call people assholes to their face, so I shift back onto two legs. I’m ignoring the fact that my kitchen looks like a massacre of limbs and I’ve got my dick hanging out since I’m naked after my shift.
My voice comes out a little rusty since I only use it to chat up my gate or when I’m singing along to my cleaning music. “We had a breach, assholes.”
Brogan snorts as Soren shakes his head at me. “Still as welcoming as ever. It seems things have changed little in the twelve months since we last saw you,” Soren says.
The guy is a real grouch. Would it kill him to raise a smile every once in a while? I’m half tempted to reach out and turn his frown upside down, but I refrain, showing true restraint.
“Huh,” I say. Twelve months, really. “Is that how long it’s been?”
Twelve entire months. I’ve been longer. I think it had decades here alone before they even showed up. When you live as long as a dragon, you kind of lose track of time, and it all becomes a meaningless jumble.
“This was the only soul-eater that got through?” Soren asks, just as Brogan says, “So, what have you been up to, man?”
“This and that,” I reply. “And, nope, there were three of the bastards. In fact, I need to head back and smoke out the vestibule in case there are any more of them hanging about. You can both go now.”
“Maybe we could come with you?” Brogan asks. “We could help you check out the vestibule. Six eyes are better than two, right?”
I wave a hand at the mangled limbs on the floor. Doesn’t seem like eight eyes or however many legs did this little fucker much good.
I concede his point, though, so I let them follow.
“Fine, you can come with. When I’ve had enough of you, I’ll let you know. Your scents make the whole place smell weird, so I don’t want you here for too long,” I tell them raspily.
“Such benevolence,” Soren mutters. He really is a surly, antisocial little shit.
When I see the state of my gate, I have to stifle a little whimper. The poor girl looks like she got fully blasted during the orgy. I pat her as I go past, cringing slightly at the stickiness that then coats my fingers.
“Don’t worry, girl. We’ll get you back to being clean as a whistle soon enough. You just hang in there for me.”
One of the others makes a weird noise behind me. I don’t know which of them and I don’t know or care what the noise means, so I just ignore it. I step through the gate and the others follow close behind, eyes alert as they try to sense for any other threats.
“I can’t see anything. Can you sense any others, Brogan?”
Brogan shakes his head. He’s got super-honed senses that can pick out a soul at a hundred paces. I guess that might mean that he can pick out things without souls just as easily. I dunno, I’ve never asked.
“Might want to cover your faces,” I tell them in warning, just before I shift into my other form and let loose an unbroken stream of smoke into the room. Smoke out any of the bastards and their little spies.
I turn back to them with a satisfied smile and find Soren once again looking at me with his face all scrunched up like a puckered asshole.
“You could have given over two seconds' warning,” he chokes out on a cough. “Or waited until we’d left the room.”
I shift back to two legs and shrug. The smoke doesn’t affect me, so I kinda forgot that it would make it all difficult for them to breathe and shit. Waving a hand toward the gate, I politely gesture that it’s time for them to leave. I need some more quality time with my girl.
“What a prick,”I hear muttered by one of them. I’m not sure which.
I cock my head to the side as we stand in my semi-ruined home. Now that I’m not so focused on the soul-eater, I can sense something new between us. Like a thin golden thread connecting the three of us, one that trails off out the door.
That’s new too.
I could follow it, see where the trail leads. Maybe there’s a pile of treasure at the end, like with rainbows. But… that would mean leaving my gate all dirtied up, and she will not like that. Plus, all the blood and shit in the kitchen, I should probably deal with that at some point too.
“Well, I’ll be seeing ya,” I say as a subtle suggestion that it’s now time for them to leave.
“Right, bye,Finn,” Brogan says. Soren doesn’t reply, because he’s a rude, rude reaper and instead swings the door open.
