“Oh, no, now wait a minute, Diablos, that seems like a terrible idea,” Becky protests.
“I’m with her, Di,” Hartley says in alarm.
Di, this giant asshole demon, snorts a plume of smoke out of his nostrils as he huffs a laugh. “Ahh, no, see I made it perfect. Listen to this. They will be bound together. All seven of them.”
“Seven?” Brio asks sharply. “What do you mean, seven?”
“They won’t be able to hurt each other without the curse enacting and making them feel like they are dying. It is perfection,” he says gleefully.
“WHAT?” I roar.
My temper explodes out of me, and waves slam down onto the beach, giving voice to my rage.
“So they can’t hurt each other, they are stuck with each other, and the beauty of it is, we can stop them from any stupidi-”
A blue-teal coil of dragon sends Diablos hurtling through the wall of the house.
“Ouch!” Diablos says from the debris. “Not cool, Leaf. You can’t go around destroying this planet. So they are,” he points at us with one black tipped claw, “going to teach you and Miss Causing-Destruction-Everywhere-She-Goes how to behave on the realm, and you are all going to learn or you are getting the fuck off our world.”
I glance at Ronit, who motions with his hand for us to back down.
“How are we to teach them?”
Diablos presses his lips together and then smiles widely. “Hartley, you know all those survivalist shows you are obsessed with.”
Hartley winces. “Those were reruns. On TV. I like TV because it's, you know, TV.”
He looks nervous.
“We’re busy for the next twelve months!” Becky says and then gasps. “Um, guys, what is that?”
I turn my head and see it and wish to all the gods that ever existed that I didn’t. It looks like a cat.
It’s totally not a cat.
“It’s so cute and fluffy,” Puppy purrs.
It opens its mouth and lets out an adorable little meow. And then explodes with writhing tentacles.
Diablos jumps back, slamming into the wall. Stix grabs Becky and yanks her behind him. Puppy hisses, all his scales rattling violently as he retreats.
Ronit grabs the bridge of his nose and mutters a prayer.
Fucking shit.
“You brought your fucking pet with you?” I swear at the ridiculous dragon.
He just gives it a goofy grin and meows back at it.
I spot the gold band on his wrist and turn to Diablos in horror.
“What have you done? Seriously, what the hell have you done?”
He looks between us, but his eyes keep returning to the cat with all its tentacles waving in the air.
“Uh…boot camp?” Diablos whispers.
“Baby, no,” Hartley says softly. “No, bad idea.”
