Light Dragons 01 - Love in the Time of Dragons

sept mark. “None of your business. Where’s Brom?”
    “Packing his things. You’re taking him away? Aisling said he was going to stay a couple of days because your crazy boyfriend was going to blow up Gabriel again.”
    “My crazy boyfriend will do nothing of the—” I stopped myself, getting a grip on my temper. “I don’t have a crazy boyfriend, and no one that I know of is going to blow up Gabriel’s house. Thus, yes, I am here to get my son. I hope to heaven you haven’t been filling Brom’s head with all sorts of inappropriate breast and Baltic talk. He is only nine.”
    “Naw, he’s a good kid, and besides, Aisling told me if I showed him my collection of Breasticles Monthly , she’d have my noogies nailed to the wall. We’ve been good. Well, we did sit up until two in the morning watching old Hammer horror films because Ash and Drake took the spawns out to the country for a couple of days, but I promised to help watch Brom. And what’s sitting up until two in the morning if not watching, eh?”
    “I shall be sure to speak to him about staying up so late,” I said with a mom frown.
    The demon grinned. “You gotta let him have some fun. That’s why I let him see pictures of my girlfriend, Cecile.”
    My jaw sagged just a smidgen. “You have a girlfriend?”
    “Yeah. Black Welsh corgi with a fluffy white belly, and ears that beg to be sucked on. She’s the cutest thing on four legs. She’s getting up there in years, but that’s OK; I’m over three thousand years old, myself. Who’s that in the car?” it asked, peering around me toward Baltic.
    “Just a friend giving me a ride.” I moved to block its view. I was about to distract the demon with something, anything, when the door opened again, this time disgorging Brom and his backpack.
    “Sullivan, can we go to the British Museum again?”
    “Good morning to you, too,” I said, hugging him.
    “Morning. Can we? Maata said she’d take me again if Gabriel and you said it was OK.”
    “Er . . .” I glanced back toward the car. Baltic’s silhouette could be seen in it, moving in an impatient manner. I’d agreed to stay with him in his house, but I didn’t want to break that bit of news to Brom with Jim standing right there, ready to carry the information straight back to Drake.
    Momentarily distracted, I gave a little mental chuckle, realizing why Drake had seemed vaguely familiar to me when I saw him at the sárkány . The memory of Drake with the three women draped around him at the tavern in Paris left me wondering if he’d really changed from the womanizing tomcat he had once been.
    “Sullivan?” Brom nudged me.
    “We’ll talk about it later, OK? Right now I want to get going. Nice to see you again, Jim.”
    “Kid’s got mummies on the brain,” Jim said to me, suddenly lunging to the side, hurrying past me toward the car. “Hey, is that who I think it is?”
    “By the rood!” I swore, dashing after him, Brom on my heels. “Jim! Come back here! Heel!”
    “That only works if you’re my demon lord or duly appointed representative thereof, neither of which you are,” it said as it came to a stop by the car. “Holy cheese and tiny little crackers! That’s—”
    I clamped my hand around its muzzle with one hand, glancing back to the house. The door opened, and Suzanne stepped out, obviously looking for Jim.
    “Of all the . . .” I jerked open the car’s back door, telling Brom, “Get in the front!”
    “What are you doing to Jim?” he asked, standing there frowning at me as I heaved the demon halfway into the car.
    “Why is it all I seem to do lately is shove people into cars? Just get in, Brom! Jim, so help me god, if you bite me, I’ll bite you back!”
    The demon’s eyes widened as I grasped it firmly around the rib cage and shoved the last bit of it into the car, more or less tumbling in after it. We fell in a tangle of arms and furry legs onto the floor of the car.
    “Get going!” I yelled to Baltic, struggling to get free of dog legs.
    “What is this?” Baltic said, glaring over the seat at us. “Why are you bringing a demon with you? We have no need of a demon, mate. Release it.”
    “Heeel!” Jim wailed, its teeth clenched shut due to my grip around its muzzle.
    “Wow, you’re the guy who came after Sullivan,” Brom said, getting into the front seat. He and Baltic regarded each other for a moment.
    “Som-un heeell ee!”
    “You should have been my son,” Baltic told Brom.
    Jim