Page 133 of Dragon Her Heels

The surgeon burst into laughter. “Just be careful with her shoulder should you decide to try to keep her busy that way. It will be sore, and I don’t mean the mild levels of soreness most experience. But I will forgo issuing painkillers initially; if her pain levels become more than she can handle, you can give me a call and I will prescribe something. I recommend against pixie dust.”

Well, there went my fun. “Why no pixie dust?”

“If you are the helper type, you will try to help, and the last thing anyone needs right now is you trying to help,” my lover replied before the doctor had a chance to respond. “If you need something to do, I have some papers a strong woman might be able to defeat, and they involve your favorite corporation.”

I could live without pixie dust if it meant getting one step closer to securing justice for Belinda and toppling my former employer’s empire. “Now we’re talking business. When I’m not trying to figure out who wanted to shoot me or my horse, I’m going to work on growing your empire. If I grow your empire sufficiently, you might leave me alone during race season.”

“Your ability to race when you want won’t be disrupted,” he promised.

* * *

Rather than brawl with Darlene, we took over my ground floor kitchen and bleached spots onto Lucifer’s feathered wings with paintbrushes so the succubus could enjoy a round of counting.

Had the Devil just agreed to show up as a snow leopard for her enjoyment, we wouldn’t have needed to join forces to subdue him, but no. Lucifer lived to be stubborn, incapable of rubbing his few remaining brain cells together to please his wife.

Understanding Darlene would need thousands of tiny spots to count, I took care with giving her a mix of small and medium splotches as well as numerous of the larger iconic rings her husband adored. As the succubus had territory issues, I sat cross-legged between his shoulders to work while she perched on his ass, making certain every ring around his tail pleased her.

“Why are we doing this again?” I asked, debating if it was worth the effort to snap my paintbrush and stab the Devil with it.

If he wiggled one more time while I attempted to bleach his primary feathers, I might.

“Yuless wants to investigate who shot you without you growling and snarling over his shoulder. You even dragged him to the lake, tapping your foot all the while, until he transformed so you could punt him into the water,” she reminded me.

Right. I had done that, as we’d spent more than an hour bickering over our preferences on how to handle my shooter. We’d agreed we would not stoop to immediate death, appeasing my need to receive some satisfaction before the dragon had his turn. “Could it have been Elegance in Moonlight’s old owner? I mean, I made off with his horse following a public shaming.”

Darlene shook her head. “He, upon witnessing the shooting on the television, called the authorities and requested angelic verification he had not been involved. It was verified he had nothing to do with it and that he admired you for riding under horrific circumstances. It seems he has a better understanding of how you have taken his horses so far. Your mission to convince him to never own racing horses again has come to fruition. He understands now that he is an excellent breeder but he should limit his involvement with the race circuits to that. He’ll make plenty of money breeding, however. He owns many excellent dams and sires, and he will try again to breed future champions—and he will. Many of his foals will sell for millions, and he will never hurt for money again. He’ll enjoy the lack of stress, as all he will need to do is track how well his foals perform.”

“I’m still going to try to win the Triple Crown. I have Alligator Bait enrolled in several races, and as long as I place top three in them all, I will qualify.” I grunted over the soreness in my shoulder, which far surpassed any general aches I’d dealt with prior. “Surely ex bosses aren’t stupid enough to try to shoot me because I wasn’t willing to return to work for them.”

Silence.

I bowed my head and sighed. That the pair refused to answer warned me my past had come calling in a rather violent fashion. “Seriously?”

“There are many kinds of men in the world, and your former employers are the kind who resent and hate when women tell them no,” Lucifer informed me, and he drummed his fingers on the floor. “They held zero remorse or hesitation over the death of your friend, and they would rather silence you than have you spill their secrets and methods to somebody else. It took them several months to understand your value—and to realize that you had not signed a long-term NDA. Your death would count as a permanent NDA to them.”

Bastards. “I was already motivated to destroy their ambitions and dismantle their empire, Lucifer. I did not need additional motivation.”

“You’re not the one who needs to be motivated, Crystal,” the Devil replied, and he pointed in the direction of the castle. “I may have interfered as it is, understanding you would have been inconsolable had your horse been injured—and I needed him to be motivated, not grieving. The bullet hit where it hit because I made it hit there. And had that shot hit any of the other jockeys, it would have led to their deaths. My father knows I meddled. He doesn’t even mind I meddled. I just helped keep the shooter’s aim true.”

I admired Lucifer’s willingness to do evil for the greater good. “I will make you a pie for that. Thank you.”

The Devil huffed his satisfaction. “You do make an excellent peach pie.”

“I will also coerce Isaac into making you a pecan pie, and you only have to share it with Darlene, Kanika, and Malcolm. But if you don’t share it with Kanika, you won’t have any feathers left. If you don’t have feathers, Darlene can’t count your spots. And I’ve determined that she really wants to count your spots this week.”

“I suspect you are right for some reason. So, it would be quite useful if you played stupid about who shot you until Yuless is appropriately motivated to begin his true corporate empire rather than toying with his supper. The instant he realizes who is behind your injury, he will act—and they will fall.” Lucifer snickered. “You’ll be entertained, and he will give you time off to recover from your injury. You’ll use the time to work with your horse. Just keep to your schedule and let her run the race as she sees fit. She’ll take you where you want to go, and you won’t have to do much beyond guide her away from the other horses. Honestly, the next races are going to be boring, boring, boring. So damned boring.”

I raised a brow at that and resumed adding a bazillion dots to the black feathers so my friend could enjoy her evening. “Honestly, I was not expecting Elegance in Moonlight to win,” I confessed.

“You believed in him, so he believed in you,” the Devil replied in a gentle voice. “You took him from a world of pain and gave him one of comfort, love, and light. He would follow you to the ends of the Earth if you let him. In his view, when you lowered your hands, you were giving him permission to do as he wanted. He chose to run for you. He didn’t understand you had been shot. He just knew you wanted him to run, so he did. But that’s the conversation you’ve started with all your horses—and that’s why you’ll stay at low stakes races more often than not. You want your horses to have the joy of racing, and they will get that in the low stakes races. But every now and then, you’ll get a horse like Alligator Bait, and you’ll take them the distance because their heart wants it as much as you do. Before today’s race, you needed the motivation. Now you need the peace of knowing you can win and do what is best for your horses.”

I pondered his words, and then one curiosity roused, and I feared the answer but decided I needed to ask anyway. “What happens to a horse’s soul after they die?”

“The same that happens to a human’s soul, Crystal. There are good horses, there are neutral horses, and there are evil horses. They have as much free will as you do, and they decide, within the nature of their souls, how to live their lives. But if it makes you feel better, most horses simply rest—and the ones that don’t tend to find themselves like Aramathea in their next life, as close to immortal as it gets and either of angelic or devilish or demonic nature. And some of them become as sentient as you or me.” Lucifer made a thoughtful sound. “Your kittens were, once upon a time, ordinary cats who faced tragedy and grief in their mortal lives. My father is sentimental, and he made the decision that those kittens would know nothing but joy in their remaining days. Of yours, Purrcifur had the worst past. My father erased as much of her soul’s memories as possible, but it is why she is as she is. Some things she can’t help but remember, and you bring her great comfort.”

I wondered what my white ball of fluff was up to, as I hadn’t seen a single sign of any of the beasts since I’d started bleaching Lucifer’s feathers. “Where are my kittens?”

Darlene giggled. “They’re keeping Yuless from doing something we all regret. I believe Realt flew them to the castle. They’ll be back when we’re done, so don’t worry.”

Well, I wouldn’t be worried about any of them if Realt was keeping my lover contained with the help of my kittens. “You seriously just want me to sit around and not worry about who shot me and let Yuless deal with it?”

The Devil sighed. “Every action and inaction has consequences. In this case, your inaction will cause him to take action. He has already captured glimpses of how far you will go for those in your care. It’s your turn to catch glimpses of how far he will go. It will not be pretty, but it will be necessary. Sometimes, the best choice is to do nothing at all and allow someone else to shine for a while.”

“Do you mean shine or devour another city?” I asked, unable to keep the curiosity out of my tone. “I’m not sure I can handle him eating another city right now.”

“Because of you, his days of eating cities are over, alas. You’ll just have to deal with an amorous dragon instead. I’m sure you can handle the responsibility.”

I snickered. “If I have to be lazy and use more of my sick days, you need to pick a nice restaurant for us with a private parlor. We’re both going to need some rest and relaxation after this.”

“Consider it done. Also, when you’re invited to go on an unexpected adventure tomorrow, please do go without a fuss. He means no harm. My darling has plans to distract Yuless for the few hours you’ll be gone.”

The Queen of Hell giggled. “I’m going to teach him how to make a pie so good you take him home to your momma. I’ve recruited the forces of hell to help him finally make a pie that is delicious rather than poison.”

I giggled and bowed my head over the reality of Yuless’s baking skills. “Just try to return him with his sanity intact.”

“I’ll try, but I’m not making any promises,” the succubus replied.