A knock sounded on thedoor.
“You sit,” Dillon said, pointing toward the couch. “Remember your rank. Use it if you haveto.”
Dillon opened the door. Even somewhat prepared, Vik gave an involuntary shiver as Tazlina ducked through thedoor.
“Have a seat. Make yourself comfortable.” Dillon managed to keep his normal high-energy thrumming to aminimum.
Tazlina attempted to sit down on the couch, as far away from Vik as possible to still occupy the same piece of furniture. Her armor clinked, stopping her midway. “I think I’ll stand, if it’s all the same toyou.”
Vic stood too. If she’dattacked…
Dillon was doing well, so Vic kept his mouth shut. Why ruin a goodthing?
Dillon said, “The reason we brought youhere—"
Tazlina splayed her palm toward Dillon’s face. “No need to tell me. Mommy Scariest announces she wants her little boy”—she hiked a thumb at Vik—“to settle down and have kids. Then she throws me under the bus. I’m not happy about it either, but she’s the boss, what can I say?” Her sigh wafted out a two-footflame.
Suddenly Vik felt sorry for a demoness as trapped in this situation as he was. “So, you really don’t want to get married.” Whew! Maybe if he told hismother…
“Let’s face it. No, offense, Vik, but I don’t want to spend eternity in your mother’s dreary throne room chasing around a passel of little demons.” The biggest, baddest, female demon warrior folded her massive frame down to see five-feet-six-inch Dillon eye to eye. “Kiana told me all about the sweet deal you made with her. What I really want is to be in movies. Can you get me in with a Hollywoodagent?”
“Maybe.” Dillon brushed at a spot on his impeccable sleeve that wouldn’t dare harbor lint. “What do you know about personaltraining?”
“Are you kidding? I bench press Macktrucks!”
“Hmm… maybe you need to learn to tone things down for a human audience. Listen, I’ve got thisfriend…”
“He means ex,” Vik offered, falling into establishedpatterns.
Dillon snorted. “You can’t honestly believe I’ve slept with every single man Iknow.”
“Didn’tyou?”
“Point taken. Anyway, I have this friend in need of a personal trainer. I get you in, you impress the hell out of him, and he’ll have you in movies in no time. Oh, think you can appear a bit morehuman?”
Tazlina shaded from red to pink toblue.
“Unless you want to audition for some weird giant alien movie, I suggest you try again. While your current look is attention getting, I’m thinking it might not be the kind of attention you want at thispoint.”
“Oh, all right.” In the twinkling of an eye Tazlina morphed into a human female—a human female who could kick Vik’s ass without breaking a sweat, but a human female nonetheless—at least appearance-wise.
“Perfect!” Dillon made a circling motion with his hand and Tazlina twirled. Damn, maybe he really could get anyone to do what he wanted. That was sometrick.
“Dillon?”
“Yes, oh tall, dark, andhorny?”
Vik chose not to take the bait. Anything he said would only make him look like the dunce in a comedy routine. Besides, he had a favor to ask. “Can you really pull strings with TV and moviepeople?”
“Some.”
“Good. ’Cause, you see, there used to be a show on TV where all these gay guys hung out on anisland—”
“Nope, sorry. You’re talking cable, and I’ve never slept with any cablepeople.”
“Could you? It was a really goodshow.”
“Vik!”
