“Down at the edge of the water. Bette said they had a bonfire going.” His arm still encircling my waist, we headed down the sloped road leading to the shore. There was a gate—of course. Around here, it seemed like everything fun was gated off for private amusement, but this one was open and the sounds of laughter filtered up from behind the foliage-thick hedges barring our view.
We wandered through the gate and within a couple of minutes, found ourselves on the lakeshore. Sure enough, Bette was there, manning the massive grill. Covered with dogs and burgers, the smell set my stomach to grumbling. Now that I couldn’t shift and eat myself a horse or a cow every now and then, I found that I had to eat every day, several times, just like humans, and it wasn’t more than a couple hours and I was hungry again. That had been one of the most surprising discoveries when I came Earthside.
“I’m going to find Ralph. Go say hello to Bette for us.” Alex gave me a slap on the ass and meandered off into the crowd.
I was slowly getting used to being around crowds—I’d been a loner most of my life, and in the Dragon Reaches, where the population was nowhere near the size of the human population, being a loner meant truly being alone. I glanced around, finally steeling myself to wander through the crowd of strangers over to Bette. But the next moment, a familiar voice intruded into my thoughts.
“Hey, Shimmer!”
I turned to find Ralph standing there, his Flying Horse energy drink in his hand. The man consumed caffeine like there was no end to it. He smiled, but I could tell something was unsettling him. The longer I was around others, the more I realized that I was somewhat of an emotional barometer. It was a blue dragon thing, though I hadn’t realized it extended beyond my fellow dragons, and I wasn’t sure just how comfortable I was with the fact that I could walk into a room and sense that Ralph was irritated at his family, or that Bette was hungering to jump her current boy-toy of the month.
Ralph nodded me off to the side. He was around five-eight and lanky, with brownish-black hair and John Lennon glasses, tinted dark. Good looking in a geek-chic way, Ralph was also a certified computer genius and a werewolf. Over the past few weeks, his crush on me had abated, especially since Alex and I had gotten together, and now the awkwardness had passed.
“Shimmer, I’m worried about Bette. Where’s Alex?” He strained his neck, looking around. “I thought I saw you come in together.”
“We did, but he took off toward . . . Hell, I don’t know where he went. Is Chai here yet?” Chai was my best friend—a djinn—who had followed me when I got exiled from the Dragon Reaches to keep an eye on me. He was a good sort, though unpredictable like all djinns, and he had settled in as my roommate and did a great job at keeping the place spotless. He also significantly cut down on the heating bill by radiating enough heat when it got chilly to create a comfortable temperature.
Ralph shook his head. “Not that I know of. Anyway, Bette’s putting on a good show but I caught her crying earlier, and you know how often that happens. When I asked her what was wrong, she pretended she had an eyelash in her eye, but those were real tears, all right.”
The tone of his voice told me enough that he wasn’t exaggerating. I glanced over at the Melusine, wondering how to approach her. She was flipping burgers onto a plate that Dent, her current beau, was holding. He was a software genius, and had made enough to afford a house on the lake. Ralph had told me in private that Dent was just a poser—that he really wasn’t all that good at his job, but was able to fake his way through. But poser or not, he made Bette happy and that’s all that mattered.
“I’ll corner her and see if I can find out what’s going on.” But at that moment, my attention was violently yanked away when Alex’s voice thundered over the murmuring of the crowd.
“I swear if you don’t get your ass away from me, woman, I’m going to put the fang to you!”
What the hell? I glanced at Ralph, who shook his head. We headed in the direction of the outburst and as we threaded our way through the crowd, I suddenly realized that someone was standing next to Alex who I really didn’t want to see.
“Oh crap.” I face-palmed, shaking my head. “I don’t want to deal with this right now.”
“You and every other sane person on this planet,” Ralph muttered.
There, standing in front of Alex, one hand on her hip, the other shaking a finger in Alex’s face, was the pleather-clad, red-haired succubus who I had hoped might have just fallen off the face of the Earth. Alex’s ex-girlfriend, Glenda sure didn’t live up to her namesake. She was a harpy-tongued bitch, rather than an enchanting witch, all right.
“You’re pond scum, Alex Radcliffe. You bottom-feeder. Cocksucker! Motherfucker!”
Alex stared at her, a look of partial amusement and partial irritation on his face. “To think, I used to kiss that mouth. Glenda, what did you expect? You’re the one who broke up with me, but it was far too long in coming. Face it, we’re done. We were done years ago but neither one of us had the courage to let go. It was time. You weren’t happy, and neither was I.”