Demon Hunting with a Dixie Deb - Lexi George Page 0,36
look. “Find out what? Are you well?”
“Yes.” Grim took an unsteady step toward the injured man. “I will carry Evan inside.”
“Nay.” Conall gestured and Evan floated off the ground. “The lady and I will see to Evan. You put the shield to rights.”
Grim scowled. “Sassy stays. I would speak with her.”
“And so you shall anon.”
Evan’s body wafted across the lawn and through the open door. Sassy hurried after him.
“But I—”
Conall paused at the top of the steps. “Your choler is high. You are pixilated on chocolate and fairy dust.” The captain’s hard mouth twitched in something close to a smile. “Perhaps the night air will clear your head. If not, there is always the river.”
The captain went inside. The door closed behind him.
Grim might be sow drunk but he knew an order when he heard one.
“Choler?” He looked up at the stars and shook his fist. “I challenge the very gods to spend a day with that woman and not yield to distemper.”
Grim straightened with a grimace. His head was awhirl. Weaving across the lawn, he set to work rebuilding the shield, pouring his frustration and worry into the task.
Evan’s naked form bobbed in the vaulted foyer. Sassy hovered in the doorway, unsure what to do. The skin around his burns was black and curled, the raw flesh beneath exposed. He must be in terrible pain.
He opened his eyes. The gooey black had disappeared from the sclera. His irises were still black.
“I take back what I said about do-gooders.” Evan gave Sassy a crooked grin. “Glad you got fairy spunked.”
“What do you—”
Sassy gasped. Evan’s burns healed before her eyes.
He stretched. “I heal pretty fast, but not like this.”
Sassy blushed and fixed her attention on the black iron chandelier. She would be blasé and cool. Cosmopolitan.
She would not notice the splendid naked guy levitating above her head like a sexed-up genie.
Evan folded his arms behind his head. “Now I know why the witch was distilling the little glitter gnats. Fairy juice is strong shit.”
Conall strode inside and closed the door. “Feeling better, Beck?”
“Why, were you worried about me?”
“Overcome with anxiety. I wept.”
Evan grinned. “You’d better let me down. We’re shocking the Lollipop. Don’t think they free ball it in high society.”
“Ralph Vandergalt got tipsy and streaked the Camellia Ball the year I was a debutante,” Sassy said. “He didn’t get invited back the next year.”
“There, you see, bro?” Evan said. “None of the best people go nuts out.”
“A category from which you are excluded. And I am not your ‘bro.’”
Conall gestured and Evan fell to the floor. He landed in a crouch like a big cat.
“Thanks.” Evan got to his feet. “If y’all will excuse me, I’ll clean up. Mind spotting me some more of Trey’s clothes, Lolly?”
“Help yourself. No one else is using them.”
“You’re a peach.”
Evan sauntered out of the room. The front door hit the wall and Grim stalked inside. His golden eyes were bleary and his skin had a waxen sheen.
He raised his hand and pointed at Sassy. “You.” Grim swayed. “You and I will talk. Now.”
Not “we need to talk” or “Sassy, I would like to have a word with you, please.” Oh, no, Mr. Douchey Pants ordered her around like she was a child.
Sassy drew her dignity around her. The spa slippers on her feet were ruined. The bottom of Trey’s robe was covered in mud. Her hair waved like sea anemones in a storm. None of that mattered.
She was Eleanor Jerkins Peterson Champion’s daughter, a pickle princess and the beloved stepdaughter of Joel Champion, the chicken tender tycoon. She’d been pushed around enough for one day, especially by a certain drop-dead gorgeous lug with a chip on his shoulder the size of Texas.
“No.” Sassy raised her chin. “I’m tired. I’m going to bed.”
“That is the first sensible thing you have said this day.” Planting his feet, Grim looked around. “Where is Evan?”
Sassy counted to three. She wanted to stamp her foot and yell at him, but that would ruin the whole dignified thing. “He’s upstairs taking a shower and getting dressed.”
“What of his injuries?”
“He is much recovered,” Conall said. “Demonoids heal quickly.”
“Excellent. As soon as he finishes his ablutions, he departs.” Grim leveled his bloodshot gaze on Sassy. “You will have nothing more to do with him.”
“Don’t be silly,” Sassy said. “You can’t tell me what to do.”
“You are mistaken.”
“Evan is my friend.”
“He is not your friend. He is treacherous and unpredictable.”