she should use a different saying. As she came upon a woman, she held up her hand. “You,” she said to the woman.
The human pointed to herself as she glanced around. “Me?”
Myanin blew out a breath. This one was as dense as the man who’d told her about the d-d-department store. “I’m pointing at you. See.” She motioned to her finger. “There’s nobody else around. Who else would I be speaking to?”
The woman’s eyes widened.
“What is a human saying that means ‘I got this’?”
The woman frowned, the fear leaving her eyes for a moment. “A human saying?”
“Yes, yes,” Myanin said, motioning for the woman to hurry up. “You know, like I’m going to do this, or I’m going to conquer something. But in the human way.” It made perfect sense, but the woman still seemed confused. Finally, Myanin said, “What would I say if I was going to express that I was going to take care of something and do it with amazing ability and finesse?”
The woman pursed her lips and then her eyes lit up. “Whatever it is that you are going to take care of, you could say, ‘I’m going to make this my bitch.’”
Myanin knew that the word was used both to describe a female dog and as an insult. It was one of the things Thadrick had shared with her about human language and their ability to turn a word used for an innocent purpose into something sinister. She supposed the woman was using it in this context as an insult and not as a female dog. After all, it didn’t seem very confident to say “I’m going to make the elf king my female dog” … or maybe it did, actually.
Eventually, Myanin nodded to the woman. “I like that. I’m going to make the elf king my bitch.”
The woman’s eyes once again widened, and her lips formed an O.
“You may go.” She waived the human away. “I don’t need to kill you.”
The human female bolted, which made the djinn laugh.
Myanin started walking again, purpose filling her steps, and she smiled. “I’m going to make the elf king my bitch … and anyone else who gets in my way. They will all be my bitches,” she said with an echoing laugh.
Chapter 5
“We might have had a victory today, but I am not a fool. The leaders we face are cunning. They have each maintained their roles over the centuries because they are strong in might and mind. I will not let my guard down, though I’m sure that is what they will expect.” ~Alston
“Where the hell did you get a draheim?” Alston barked as he glared at Ludcarab. He’d been just as surprised as Vasile’s people when he’d seen the elf king riding on the back of one of the bloody beasts that humans would call a dragon.
“It’s not your concern,” Ludcarab said, his voice smug and his chin held a little higher than Alston cared for. The elf king had been the leader of the Order since its beginning, but Alston believed it was time for a change in management. Acquiring and bringing a beast like the draheim to the human realm was a prime example that the elf king was not behaving like a rational leader.
“It is my concern,” Alston bit out through clenched teeth. “Draheim are not pets. They don't do what they’re told. They are temperamental, and that one” —he motioned to a wall that blocked their view of the creature— “is young, which means he’s going to be even more unpredictable. And they have their own magic. You can’t rely on yours to keep them concealed.”
“He isn’t going to be a problem,” Ludcarab sighed as he straightened his non-wrinkled sleeves and then adjusted the sword at his side. “Need I remind you who is in charge of this operation?”
“Times have changed, king,” Alston said. “The Order has been in hiding for a very long time, not operating as anything more than an idea. We live in a modern era now, and the Order needs leadership that understands the world as it is, not as it was.”
“And you think you’re the one to lead?” Sincaro, the king of the vampires, said as he entered the large, dusty warehouse that had become their headquarters. There were other warehouses clustered nearby that had been remodeled into apartments for the other members of the Order.
“Surely you aren’t thinking of simply placing yourself in that role,” Cain, the leader of a large group of vampires that