bedeviled & beyond 04 - bedeviled & belittled by sam cheever Read Free Book Online Page B

face was a curious green color.
    I dropped the pipe and turned away, striding angrily down the street, toward Darma’s house.
    “See, Astra, that’s what I mean, perspective. You didn’t hit him in the head with the pipe, you hit him in the stomach. Extreme pain versus death.” She patted me on the shoulder and grinned. “I think I’m finally wearing off on you.”
    I stared straight ahead, my body vibrating with barely contained fury. As my sister preened and skipped along in smug satisfaction, I fantasized about smacking her around.
    “I should have kept the damn pipe.” I murmured crankily.

CHAPTER FOUR
    Welcome to Olympus Air
    An adopted charge doth call our miss, and engage her in a quest,
    The dragon queen has fled the coup, abandoning her nest.
    I need you, mother halfling!
    I jerked awake, glad to have been pulled from another lust-filled dream starring all the wrong people.
    Glynus?
    Hello, mother halfling.
    What’s wrong?
    Our world is under attack. Mother and Father have gone into battle. I’m scared. I haven’t heard from them in several slides of the sun across the sky.
    I climbed out of bed and headed for the personal hygiene room to shower. Are you coming to get me?
    I’m nearly there.
    See you in a few minutes then.
    Thank you, mother halfling.
    I climbed into the shower tube. “One hundred degrees, full power, half soap.” The water shot on and I slid under the pulsating jets, sighing happily. Hot, soapy water sluiced over my head and body, warming me and igniting my Settling. I wondered where Dialle was at that moment and considered trying to find him later, after I’d dealt with the Black Dragons’ problem.
    I suddenly realized I’d been promoted—somewhere along the way—to being the savior for yet another world. Apparently I wasn’t busy enough saving humankind over and over again, now I had to deal with saving the dragons too.
    By the time I’d pulled on a soft, form-fitting black sweater and slacks and tugged on some boots, Glynus was back in my mind.
    Are you ready to go?
    Almost.
    I pulled a few clothes into a small bag, which I flung over my shoulder, and did a quick pass through my living space, making sure I hadn’t forgotten anything. It was possible I’d be gone a while.
    Are you on the roof?
    Yes.
    I headed up to the roof and emerged into a light drizzle under an overcast sky.
    Glynus was waiting as patiently as she was able, being a young dragon and still prone to fidgeting. I was always a little shocked when I saw her after not laying eyes on her for while. She’d grown considerably since the day I’d first acquired her.
    She’d been a tiny baby then, capable only of uttering the word “bluerp” and belching smoke. Her inability to speak didn’t last long, however. It ended abruptly when she started parroting any swear words I uttered. Within days she sounded like a galaxy sailor on Earth leave.
    Her fondness for the words “shit” and “frunk” didn’t win me any motherhood awards from my family and friends. Fortunately her ability to speak words out loud went away as she grew. Since then, she and I spoke only telepathically, as I did with her mother and father. That saved me some serious embarrassment whenever she came out with some weird Astra-ism that was totally inappropriate for her age and station in life.
    It happened frequently.
    Glynus was currently a gawky adolescent. Though at thirty feet tall and approximately fifty feet long, adolescent wasn’t the word that popped to mind when seeing her. Her wide chest was covered in opaline scales, which sparked with pastel cream, rust, and gray light as she moved, and her top line, which would be a deep, onyx black when she was full grown, was a beautiful charcoal gray.
    But it was her eyes that were truly arresting. They were a deep violet, fringed with thick lashes as long as my pinky finger.
    Glynus was a princess. Next in line for the throne. Her mother, the Queen had given her to me to rear among the