“Such a considerate hostess,” the dragon murmured. “Rest assured, Miss Daegberht, we will be returning to our domiciles anon.”
“Colby excepted,” I added. Forcing the consequences of my culinary disaster on someone else didn’t seem fair, and Colby made one damned good roommate.
“Of course, of course.” The dragon laughed, although I had no idea what it found funny. Was the idea I’d take responsibility for the odd little dae so amusing?
More likely than not, Colby didn’t need my help to get by. If its cleaning abilities were any indication of its life skills, my sentient macaroni and cheese would do well enough on its own.
I tried not to think too hard about how outclassed I was as a normal human. Things were difficult enough for me as it was.
“They’re in proper attire now, Miss Daegberht,” the dragon announced.
What classified as proper attire to the dae? I turned around, tense in case the dragon was leading me on.
Dae, apparently, favored suits. I never thought the tattoo artist would clean up so nice, but he did—and the winged one was even better dressed. It took every bit of my willpower to prevent myself from cursing at my misfortune.
“Very nice,” I said, meaning it. “Not to be rude, but what exactly are you?”
The way they both smiled triggered every last one of my internal alarms. Maybe I was inexperienced by necessity, but I recognized predators when I saw them, and I faced two of them. I clenched my teeth, narrowed my eyes, and stood my ground. “I know what you are, vampire,” I added.
The tattoo artist pouted. “Sullivan.”
“I am what you would refer to as an incubus, my dear,” the other replied, and he took a step towards me. “You’re lovely, you know.”
I arched a brow, took one good look at myself, and burst into laughter. “Trust me, I’ve seen my reflection in the mirror. If you want lovely, I can give you an address. You’ll have to fight her pimp for her, but hey, if you want lovely, she’s it.”
Lily would forgive me for the mess to have a chance at someone so gorgeous. She probably wasn’t human anymore, either, so an incubus probably wouldn’t worry her one bit.
“No eating our hostess,” the dragon chided.
“I wouldn’t!”
“On purpose,” the vampire muttered.
I sighed. “Do you have a name, Mr. Incubus?”
“Earl.”
I didn’t know many Earls, but none of them oozed sex appeal quite like the incubus did. Most of them came from the fringe, like me, and embraced their roles in life with enthusiasm. I doubted any of them had ever worn a suit in their life, nor would they care to. Whether the consequence of nature or nurture, they hadn’t been the type to try to break out of their birth rank.
The elite loved men like that: easy to control, easy to please, and hard workers.
“I’m not interested, but I’m still pleased to meet you, Earl,” I said, and the truthfulness of my declaration depressed me. I really wasn’t interested in a shortened lifespan, and some things weren’t worth the risk—including death by sex with a gorgeous man.
But damn, he was tempting. Incubus, indeed.
His eyes widened while everyone else laughed. Deciding I had won that round, I headed for the kitchen, slumped across the counter, and asked, “What’s for dinner?”
The dragon opened its mouth to reply, and the unicorn kicked it across my apartment. It squealed, smacked into the far wall, and slid to the carpet. “Don’t ask,” the unicorn said, then turned its attention to the pot on the stove, picked up the spoon in its mouth, and gave the contents a stir.
I worried, but kept my mouth shut.
Dinner looked like beef stew and tasted like beef stew. What looked like beef stew and tasted like beef stew had to be beef stew, and that was that. My determination to cling to my ignorance was probably going to get my killed.
Of all of us, Colby ate the most. I had no idea where it packed it away or hid the evidence of its gluttony. There was no sign Colby had eaten anything at all. I wasn’t really surprised when the dragon gorged on enough food to feed me for a week.
Earl ate more like a bird, and Sullivan regarded the stew as though it would poison him if he touched it.
“You invited me over for a bite,” the vampire whined, prodding at the stew with his fork. “This was not what I had in mind.”
“Bite Earl,” I suggested. “Incubus like it rough, right?”
“You, Miss Daegberht, have a very pretty face but a very nasty mouth,” Earl muttered.
“I am merely feeling guilty I interrupted your entertainment earlier,” I replied, stifling a yawn. If dinner guests were going to be a trend with the dae around, I was going to have to invest in stools. While the unicorn and the dragon didn’t seem to care, Earl, Sullivan, and I stood around the counter in the kitchen.
I could have suggested we eat in the living room, but sitting down in such close quarters with two men seemed like a good way to earn a few extra rashes I really didn’t need. The one from shaking hands with Terry Moore were still around, although the burn medications did a good job of counteracting the reaction.
At least none of my guests seemed interested in invading my personal space.
“You’re quite the interesting individual, Miss Daegberht,” the dragon said. “When I was told about you, I simply had to see for myself if what I had heard was true. Fascinating.”
I frowned, wondering who was talking about me and why. “What, exactly, were you told?”
Opening its mouth, the dragon displayed all of its sharp, pointy teeth. “That you were absolutely, positively, and without a doubt, the most normal person left alive. To think there’d still be someone like you around.”
The undertone of scorn in its voice put me on edge. I scowled. If the dragon knew I broke out in hives whenever someone—except bloody, stupid Rob—touched me, he’d swallow his words. With luck, he’d choke on them. “I see.”
“Normal and completely unflappable,” Sullivan said, saluting me. “Ignore him. He likes to think himself so superior.”
“I am,” the dragon snapped, snorting fire in the vampire’s direction. After my day, the display seemed almost pitiable.
The unicorn turned and, once again demonstrating it had wicked aim, cracked both of its hind hooves into the dragon, launching it across my apartment. “You are rude.”
Instead of flopping to the floor like before, the dragon punched through the drywall, leaving its rump dangling out of the opening. I sighed at the damage. Over the years, I had picked up the skills to do repairs, but it was money I didn’t want to spend—and no one would believe me if I said a unicorn had kicked a dragon’s ass out of my kitchen for mouthing off.
Then again, maybe they would. The world was a strange place made stranger still by the Dawn of Dae. It didn’t matter. What did matter was getting the destructive forces of nature out of my apartment so I could get some sleep.
“I have work tomorrow. Thank you very much for cooking, but please get the fuck out,” I said, pointing at the door. “Destroy someone else’s home, thank you very much.”
“Mommy!” Colby agreed.
My unwanted guests left—eventually. I wasn’t sure exactly when they departed; I had given up trying to get them to leave and collapsed in an exhausted stupor on my bed without changing clothes as soon as they were gone.
When morning came and my tablet’s alarm warned me I was about to be late, I was alone. I staggered into the living room to discover Colby hard at work repairing the damage to the wall.
“Damn, you’re good,” I blurted, wondering how it had managed to fit a new piece of drywall in place without any evidence of a seam. When I did it, there was always some stupid line betraying where I had patched a hole. Once I got around to painting—or Colby decided to do it—no one would suspect a dragon had taken flight with the help of a unicorn.
“Mommy!” Colby bounced in place and stopped working.
“Want breakfast?”
Food, apparently, motivated Colby. My macaroni and cheese could move fast, and by the time I blinked, it was in the kitchen hopping in front of the refrigerator. Guilty I had given it such a restrained diet, I followed at a more sedate pace.
When I opened the door, a new selection of food waited for me, crammed into every bit of available space.
“I’d ask what the hell was going on, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t like the answer,” I muttered, pulling out all the fruit I recognized and setting it aside on the counter. Once again, there was a disturbing array of items I simply had no idea how to use.
Did Colby have taste buds? Would it notice—or care—if I fed it everything I didn’t want? There was no way I could eat everything on my own, not even in a month. By then, it’d probably spoil.
“I hope you’re hungry.”
“Mommy!” Colby hopped up onto the counter and jiggled.
There was something a little unnerving about how my roommate ate; nothing seemed safe from its appetite. I cleaned a quarter of the refrigerator out, and Colby ate every last bite I offered it.
I had a few pieces of fruit. My thoughts wandered back to Kenneth, my work at the college, and my growing list of things I needed to finish. I hadn’t put any thought into developing a way to categorize the dae. I’d work on it while interviewing the hopefuls.
Kenneth was going to blow his top when he found out his precious list had been destroyed. When he found out Terry Moore was dead, he’d be fit to kill. After having hoodwinked him, I doubted he would be in a forgiving mood.
Until things settled down, I probably wouldn’t have to worry too much about Kenneth. He was a lot of things, but he wasn’t stupid—and interfering with the government was a good way to draw attention to himself and his less-than-legal operations. I’d have to get to work sniffing out where Terry Moore had stashed Kenneth’s drugs and money, though. Having dirt on the dealer wouldn’t save me. Opening my mouth wouldn’t do me any good—and it would give him plenty of reasons to ruin me.
I grabbed a quick shower to help clear my head. While packing up my things, I considered Colby. Leaving the dae—or whatever it was—alone all day bothered me, but how was I supposed to take it with me?
“Hey, Colby?”
“Mommy?”
“Tomorrow, do you want to go to work with me?”
“Mommy!”
I took its excited squeal to mean yes, and sighing, I cursed my guilty conscious. “Okay, I’ll figure something out.”
I had enough money to buy a good gym bag—one made with mesh so Colby would be able to watch from inside. I also had enough money to buy a good insulated container for it to hide in if necessary. Then again, maybe I could let it run loose at the college.
What was one more oddity in a world full of them?
When I reported to the college, I was assigned a guard—one with an affinity with water. The dean was too busy to see me; I didn’t even make it up the steps to the main administration building before I was routed to the main gates to conduct more interviews.
My new partner looked human enough, which worried me. The man was older—easily old enough to be my grandfather, and he stared down his nose at me. Before the Dawn of Dae, he’d probably been an elite. He didn’t actually say anything, which was probably for the best.
After last night, I wasn’t in the mood for more elitist bullshit, and if I had a dollar for every one of the problems I’d had since the moment Rob had stepped out of my refrigerator, I’d be rich—and an elite, too. Or would I be?
I had no idea how the emergence of the weird and wonderful would change the castes. Would the wealthy remain powerful? Would those who had ruled over the lower castes be knocked from their high horses to be replaced by those they had ruled?
If power meant instant elevation, there wouldn’t be any need for me to conduct interviews. Then again, it was likely what the elite wanted. If the masses figured out they could take rank by force, it’d be civil war.
Most didn’t even know the United States had been a country born and defined by rebellion. Like the children’s stories I had enjoyed sneaking peeks at in private libraries, the true history of our home was hidden under a shroud of lies. I had seen older texts. I had defied the elite by reading them, but I lacked the courage to tell anyone.
No one would believe me even if I did.
I wondered how many of the educated understood the turbulent history of the United States—and how it resembled the kingdom the early Americans had fled centuries before. In a way, the President was a bit like a king, although a crippled one. He did what the elite told him to if he wanted to stay in power.
My woolgathering kept me occupied through the first several interviews, which I conducted in the half-conscious daze of a sleepwalker. The first few were shifters who couldn’t shift, and the fire-breathers could barely light cigarettes let alone hurt anyone, myself included.
While the police were escorting in the next batch, I worked on evaluating yesterday’s numbers. My awareness of being watched intensified, and grinding my teeth together, I considered whether or not I really wanted to antagonize the individual who was supposed to keep me from becoming deep-fried by an overenthusiastic fire-breather lacking control.
“Interviewing potential candidates is useless without finding out what is actually a rare or unique skill,” I muttered, using the dean’s term for the dae’s abilities.
“So I’ve been told. Seems rather like a waste of time to me,” my bodyguard replied. Movement in my peripheral vision drew my attention. For the first time since he had started shadowing me, the man decided to sit down instead of hovering.
“How would you recommend the dae be registered, sir?” I really wanted to get up, stomp off, and tell the man to just do the work himself, but losing my temper really wouldn’t help me reach my goals. I could scream about the system in the comfort of my apartment later.
Colby, at least, was a good audience. Having it for a roommate had a lot of perks, including its inability to argue with me in a way I could understand. It was a good thing I hadn’t brought it with me, though. I doubted my bodyguard would have approved of my sentient macaroni and cheese adding to the chaos.
Tomorrow, I’d have to be really, really careful.
“We don’t need them at all,” he snapped.
Saying nothing at all seemed wise, so I remained silent. Prejudice would always exist, and I didn’t need a degree to understand I was tolerated instead of welcomed. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.
If the sudden emergence of a magical race of beings who bonded with humans couldn’t force change, nothing would. It was a shame, really, but there was nothing I could do about it.
Living would be difficult enough. What could I do? The lack of an answer depressed me far more than my unwilling bodyguard’s scorn.
The dragon was right about so many things, including the fact I was nothing more than a normal woman in a world where normality was a death sentence.
Chapter Ten
I was grateful for the elite’s company by the time the day was done. While no one immolated themselves in their desperation to prove their worth, he was forced to extinguish several fires.
I think the elite’s failure to keep me from coming to harm stung his pride far more than being relegated to watching me conduct the interviews. After my first burning, which had scorched my thin gloves and rendered them useless, he paid far closer attention to the other dae.
The second burn wasn’t even his fault, not really. Neither one of us had expected a fight to break out in the line. The singe on my back hurt like hell, but I had saved the laptop and its precious data from harm. My elite bodyguard hadn’t been so lucky.
The flames had caught him right in the face. The medical staff escorted him away, and he didn’t return. A cop took his place, and the woman didn’t look pleased to be relegated to babysitting duty. The two dae responsible for the fight disappeared. When one of the police reported their names to
me for my records, I made a note they were likely deceased.
At least their executions weren’t public.
I tried not to think of what would happen to them if the government didn’t kill them. The thought of anyone ending up a test subject for the elite left me nauseous.
Two hours before curfew, I made my escape.
Determined to keep my promise to Colby, I hit the streets. Many of the stores were still closed, leaving grocery stores and a few general stores open for business. At the rate I was going through gloves, I’d need a bag to store them. I bought a few extra pairs to make certain I didn’t run out and headed home.
My apartment reeked of paint. Colby greeted me at the door, and to my relief, it was alone.
“Mommy!”
“Hey, Colby. I got bags,” I announced, holding up the gym bag and the soft-cover cooler I had purchased for Colby’s use. “You, too, can enjoy what it’s like to have flames spewed at you tomorrow. It’ll be fun. If you’re lucky, you’ll get to watch the elite posture and lord over the peons.”
“Mommy?” Colby jiggled, and the way it shifted its noodle and cheese mass reminded me of a confused child.
I locked my door, doubting the precaution would stop any dae if they decided to visit again. I carried the bags to the kitchen and set them on the counter. “Do you not know about the elite?”
Colby bounced into the living room and, moments later, returned with two sheets of paper. I still wasn’t quite sure how the dae managed to carry anything. I recognized the sheets as the ones I had written yes and no on.
It sat on the sheet reading no and waited.
“You were never human, were you.”
Colby remained silent.
“Who am I to complain? I got out with two mild burns today. You should have seen my so-called partner. He got a face full of fire and lived to talk about it. Elites. The ones born into it are all talk. They believe they’re entitled to everything and shouldn’t have to work for it. They’ve had everything they needed in life handed to them. They don’t know what it means to work. They don’t know what it’s like to be the lowest of the low. They eat the shit the other elite feed them, and that’s that.” I clacked my teeth together.
The Dawn of Dae (Dae Portals Book 1) Page 10
