Fiends and Familiars - Debra Dunbar Page 0,49
It seems they were looking forward to all the goodies a corn maze had to offer, and they were upset that Drake would be coming with me while they weren’t.
Finally I had to inform my vulture familiar that he couldn’t come. It was that or risk a temper-fueled squirrel destruction of my house. To console Drake and the squirrels about being left behind, I made sure several bowls of food were out, and put the television on. They were arguing which channel to watch and fighting over the remote when Babylon picked me up. With my luck I’d come home to find the remote destroyed and the television stuck on endless infomercials.
I wasn’t going to let it ruin my night. I could always unplug the television and pick up a ten-dollar universal remote tomorrow morning if I had to. Tonight wasn’t going to be me worrying about my house or the animals, it was going to be about meeting new people, not thinking about a sexy demon who’d betrayed me, and trying to enjoy myself.
Locking the door and setting the ward, I handed Babylon two of the dog food bowls, and grabbed another in one hand and the pumpkin bars I’d made for the party in the other. “Here. Help me put these bowls out on the lawn, will you?”
“So you’re feeding all the neighborhood strays, are you?” She shook her head and placed one of the bowls by the garage.
“Just these dogs that have been coming by.” I’d checked my wards repeatedly throughout the day but none of the hellhounds, including Yeth, had been by. It hurt. Yes, I’d commanded their physical bodies, then taken control of their minds, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t attached to the big, hairy drooling boys. The thought that they’d gone back to hell when my spell wore off and never seemed to have given me another thought hurt.
And Yeth… I thought we’d become friends. I thought he’d side with me against Ty, or at least sneak out of hell to visit, to let me know that in spite of what had gone down, we were still good. I’d thought that if he didn’t care one bit about me, he might care about the frozen bits of liver I had bought just for him.
I’d thought wrong. But still here I was, putting out food and hoping that maybe I could still be friends with these hellhounds. What an idiot. They were part of Ty’s pack. They’d probably been with him by his side for thousands of years. There was no way a few days of eating kibble and scraps in my front yard could compete with a very long and hellish bond.
“Are you sure you should be feeding stray dogs, Addy?” Lonnie asked as she sat down one of the food bowls. “What if they have rabies? What if your neighbors shoot them? Or call the cops? We’re not living in Accident anymore. You have to do things by human rules out here, not witch rules.”
She had a point. I wasn’t county Animal Control, but I did make my living dealing with animals. Given their somewhat alarming appearance, I was concerned that anyone else who saw them might shoot them on sight. Could a hellhound die? Be injured by bullets? Or poison? Be caught in an Animal Control cage? Maybe it was for the best that they stayed in hell. I couldn’t exactly have a dozen hellhounds chilling on my front yard and not end up with angry neighbors and probably a big fine from the HOA.
But I missed them, and I missed Ty, so I left the bowls filled with food and headed to a party.
Lonnie chatted about her day at work as she drove. I gave her an abridged version of what had gone down in Cassie’s office, careful not to mention Ty. She obviously realized that was a subject we were not going to discuss tonight, and instead told me about the people I’d meet at the party, including a guy she wanted to introduce me to.
Derrick. Six foot one. Dark hair. Dark eyes. The chiseled jaw of a superhero. Owned his own business. Single after a breakup a few months back. I nodded along as she sang Derrick’s praises, trying not to think about a sexy demon who sprouted horns, breathed fire, and drove me to ecstasy with a forked tongue.
We pulled into the farm, past the house and barn and a line of trucks and cars, to park