Two people she hadn’t met entered, and she recognized the hare’s scent from the bathroom.
Also, something from the weasel family.
The hare smelled towards her and said, “You must be the dragon. I smelled you in my bathroom. I’m Felix.”
He had a strong French accent, and he pronounced his name Fay-Leeks.
“I’m Emmy, and we won’t talk about what it’s short for. It’s nice to meet you.”
He nodded toward the woman next to him. “This is Maren.”
Emmy tilted her head sideways. “Gonna guess badger or wolverine, but maybe weasel. Definitely not ferret or ermine.”
She smiled. “Wolverine. Good guess. You’re my first dragon, and I’d have figured some kind of huge fae thunder lizard, but I guess dragon makes more sense.”
The two had recently fucked, but they weren’t acting like they were together, and Felix’s scent was all kinds of intriguing. She picked up the fear Rhea had mentioned, but also courage and tenacity.
“A bunch of us are going to Girdwood tomorrow,” Toby said. “Hike, tram, bar at the top with hot cider and mulled wine. You should come.”
“Sounds like fun, but how does that work with the feeding schedule?”
“We’re leaving early and plan to be back by five,” Maren said. “Spence and Fawn will make it work. If whoever you’re assigned to wants to eat before we’re back, they’ll switch them to someone who’s here. This has been planned a while. You can’t just take off on your own so you aren’t here when you’re supposed to be without a good reason. Mostly, just letSpence or Fawn know your plans, and keep in touch if you aren’t back when expected.”
Rhea walked in, holding her phone, and then looked up at Emmy when she set it on the table. “Fuck. You had Matthias right after Byron?” She shook her head. “It won’t always be so cold. Some of the vampires like talking to their food.”
Felix made a grimace, and told Rhea. “Figures. He probably asked for her.”
Rhea nodded. “Right. He likes the exotics.” Rhea looked to Emmy. “He’s a serious sadist, so Fawn usually only puts him with masochists. He doesn’t really care whether the people he hurts can eroticize the pain or not, and I think he enjoys it more when we can’t. Fawn will have reminded him to follow the terms of your contract. If you were super-insistent about not being hurt sadistically, he probably only hurt you with his bite.”
Emmy now understood why Spence was so adamant some of the passages stayed in. “It seems Spence did me a favor, because there are three lengthy paragraphs saying I prefer to hurt people rather than be hurt.”
Felix’s scent changed, and Emmy’s clit throbbed at the sensory input. It seemed the hare very much liked the idea of her hurting him.
“Well,” she said, sitting back in her chair. “It seems you and I need to have a talk in private later. Handy we have adjoining rooms.”
“I’d tell ya’ll to get a room,” Rhea said, “except I think maybe it’d be fun to watch you hurt him.”
Probably time to change the subject. “Are there any portals to Faerie nearby?”
Everyone in the room looked at each other, waiting for someone else to answer, and then Rhea shrugged. “I have no idea.”
“I haven’tchangedinto my dragon and flown in nearly three months.” She looked at Spence. “Do you know someone who might be able to point me to one?”
“Not off the top of my head, but I’ll ask around.” He hesitated, then told her, “I’ll be meeting you at the atrium this evening, so you canchangeindoors after I take more blood from you than is usual. I mean, needle and bag, not me actually drinking it.”
She was still processing that when Toby said, “Pretty sure you’ll be able to fly at Mordnik if you go. Might have to keep track of when certain satellites are overhead if you don’t stay inside the obfuscation dome, but if your dragon can fly in minus forty degrees…”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been in weather that cold in either form, and I don’t especially want to talk to my father at the moment, so I guess I’ll just have to find out by trying. Worst case scenario, I blow enough fire to warm the air around me.”
“Ohhh,” Maren said. “The dragon has daddy issues. Do tell.”
Emmy shook her head. “He’s being an ass at the moment. I still love him, I just don’t want to talk to him right now.”
“Leave her alone,” Felix said. “We all have family shit to deal with.” He had some kind of caprese thing going on, withcherry tomatoes, sliced mozzarella, basil, and Emmy was pretty sure he drizzled a rosemary-balsamic oil over it, based on what she could smell.
But then he added something that looked oddly like tree bark, and she had to ask what it was.
“Toasted lotus root and dehydrated kale bark.”
