Bette cocked her head. “Follow me. Dent, take over the burgers, would you? I’ll show Shimmer to the bathroom where she can shower and dry her hair while I find her a robe. Chlorine leaves a nasty residue.” She linked her arm through mine and began to steer me toward the path leading up to the house, leaving Ralph, Alex, and Chai to discuss Glenda’s inopportune appearance.
“You okay, sugar?” Bette was the chain-smoking, leather-clad, curse-like-a-sailor grandmother I never had. Clad in leopard print jeggings, a chartreuse V-neck body suit, and a black leather jacket, she was loud and nasal, with a bouffant so high it rivaled Marge Simpson’s hair. How she managed to navigate on the platform CMPs she wore confounded me. But Bette was also, by now, a good friend, and had introduced me to several delightful Earthside delicacies, like Sees Candies—though I didn’t have much of a sweet tooth—and dripping, oozy fast-food cheeseburgers.
I nodded. “Yeah, I am. Glenda had better watch out, though, or Alex will take her down. He’s a gentleman, but not when threatened and she crossed a line tonight.”
“You aren’t spoiling for a catfight, are you? Because honey, I know you’re a dragon, but Glenda’s mean as a junkyard dog, and she’s got a lot of tricks up her sleeve. She wouldn’t hesitate to fight dirty.” Bette sounded so concerned that I wanted to hug her.
“Nope, not spoiling for a fight at all. I’d be happier if she just disappeared. But you . . . Bette—Ralph said he thought something was wrong, and I sense it, too. What’s going on? Your smile is pretty much skin deep right now.” Now that I was next to her, I could tell that she was upset over something. The emotion radiated off of her in waves. “Are you upset at Dent?”
She blinked. “Dent? Why would I be? No, he’s just a little bit of fun right now, and both he and I know that. But now that you mention it, I am worried, but it’s not about me—it’s about a friend.”
“Ralph? Alex?”
“No, no one you know.” She led me into a large bedroom that was decked out in black and white, with potted palms. The floors were hardwood, thank goodness, so I wasn’t saturating the carpet with the water that trickled off my clothing. She held up one hand, while darting into an enormous walk-in closet, then returned with a thick, plush terrycloth robe. It was a pale shade of blue, and I smiled. My favorite.
“There’s a bathroom through that door. Take a shower and warm up, get the chlorine off you. And on the vanity, you’ll find a blow dryer so you can dry your hair. If you need anything, let me know. There are clean towels on the side of the vanity.”
I wanted to ask more about who she was worried about, and why, but decided that could wait till I got the chlorine off me. I hated the stuff, and it didn’t like me much, either. I seemed to get a reaction to it, and that had put a dent in my swimming in pools for a while, until I’d managed to find a saline pool nearby and signed up for a membership there.
Slipping out of my wet clothes, I stepped into the shower, the warm water streaming over my body. Dent probably wasn’t the one who used honeysuckle body wash—I had smelled it on Bette before—so I figured the bottle was hers. I lathered up, soaping away the stink of the chlorine. It didn’t exactly burn me, but I noticed a pale rash that rose up when I went too long without washing after it touched any significant portion of my body.
Glenda’s arrival nagged at me. I wasn’t seriously worried she would hurt me—regardless of my temporary limit on powers, I could still beat the crap out of her, though I had doubts my water magic would affect her in any significant way. But the fact that she had decided to interfere meant something was up. She hadn’t moved on, and considering the way she ill-used Alex, I had the feeling that she was finding it difficult to dig up somebody else who would put up with not only her violent temper, but her inborn need to fuck every man she saw. Succubi weren’t cut out for relationships. Neither were incubi. And yet, some of them—against all odds—kept trying.
After I finished, I stepped out of the shower and wrapped my towel around me, then another around my hair. As I padded over to the vanity, I saw that Bette had taken away my wet clothes, and had laid out the blow dryer and the robe. I toweled the water away, then slid into the robe and tied it tight.
I stared at myself in the mirror. Six months ago, I had been sent Earthside. Exiled for a crime that I fully admitted to. The alternative was to stay in the Dragon Reaches and let Greanfyr—the white dragon I had stolen from—hunt me down and execute me. And if he did, nobody would raise a wing to stop him, given my persona non grata status.