Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 62528 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 208(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62528 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 208(@300wpm)
Damien shrugged.
Cimil continued, “But this is probably the ladies’ last chance to reproduce, so he has to play, or there’ll be no more dragonitos. Like. Ever. Also, gods help us all if the dragonettes come all this way and don’t get any action. Yanno what I mean?”
It dawned on Damien that whatever he thought he knew about dragons had just gone out the window. For starters, he’d had no idea they could shape-shift. Though, that did explain why they were impossible to capture. They could appear as anything, even human.
Also, he’d been unaware that the male dragons tried to bang the entire herd of females who answered his mating call. According to Cimil, only a few eggs—if any—resulted in offspring, thus the reason there had been so few dragons in the world before the blast. Now there were even fewer. Maybe there’ll be none soon.
“Cimil, I admire your dedication to the survival of the species, but I can guarantee your interference will change nothing.” If anything, she’d just get in their way. It was how Cimil rolled. Chaos was her love child. “In any case, I have to tell Votan where you are.”
“He said he’s going to kill me, didn’t he?” Cimil asked.
A lump formed in Damien’s throat, but he kept his mouth closed.
“Yep. There it is.” Cimil shook her head. “I try to do good, and my selfish brethren only think about their vacations, retirement, and binging all the BBC miniseries they missed out on. All six hundred thousand hours. Meanwhile, the world could lose the most majestic monster ever to fly.”
“We’ll still have the were-eagles.” Those were pretty impressive and huge—about the size of a small aircraft. There was a pack of them living up north.
“I’ll make you a deal, tailor. You help me convince this dragon to shift back and do a round of bang-bang with the ladies when they show up, and I promise I’ll turn myself in.”
“You. You’ll surrender, knowing what Votan has planned?” Damien found that hard to believe.
“Sure!” She swiped a hand through the air as if it were nothing.
Damien knew she was lying. The question was: Could he alert Votan to Cimil’s location without tipping her off? Because Cimil had made a mess of his life in the past and would continue her shenanigans if she remained free. He could think of nothing better than a world without her in it.
He was about to lie and say he’d help, when Cimil opened her mouth. “Tailor, if you do this for me, I can make it worth your while. I can get Sky another body. In fact, I can get her an endless supply so she can run out and get killed to her heart’s delight. And then come back to you, of course.” Cimil winked.
There was a time when Damien would’ve jumped at that chance, but now? After everything he’d gone through the first time with Sky? No, he had to let Sky “live” her life so he could move on. No more trying to be the hero.
On the other hand, could he truly turn his back on Sky simply because she’d kicked him to the curb? It didn’t seem like the gentlemanly thing to do. A strong man, like himself, helped others when in a position to do so.
If only my evil brother were here… In the past, when conflicted, Damien always did the opposite of his brother’s suggestions, and it generally worked out. Of course, after two hundred years, Damien had discovered that in addition to being bespelled by Willa, the entity living inside him was not his evil twin brother. That was what his father had told him as a child, since all Greystone males were born the same. Twins, sharing one body. One good. One bad. It was up to the good one to keep the other’s violent tendencies in check.
Only recently had Damien come to learn that his brother had actually been a rage demon possessing his body. Apparently, his great-great-grandfather had made some sort of pact with the creatures in order to protect the Greystone bloodline. It was like having the Terminator (the evil one) on call, living right inside you.
The evil bastard was gone now, which was a huge relief; however, there were times when Damien found himself missing the little devil. It made navigating situations like these much more difficult. Also, Damien missed being able to call on the demon to kill, which it did with glee and pizzazz, while leaving Damien feeling guilt-free for the most part.
Now, it was just him. One man. One body. All the decisions.
“Cimil, how do you intend to provide Sky with unlimited bodies?”
“That’s for me to know and me to find out. But if you scratch my backside, I’ll scratch yours and throw in some bodies. Deal?”
As usual, she made about as much sense as a pair of lederhosen made of licorice—one of Cimil’s many strange costume requests back when he made clothes for her. Still, Damien needed to give her offer consideration before saying no, given how Sky was the impacted party.