Page 39 of Dream Reaper

She was an enigma, and he liked puzzles.

“You don’t like being called a meat pasty?”

Her lips thinned and whitened. “Not particularly. You have a habit of talking to me like I am food. No one likes that.”

“Well, you are food. Why not embrace it?”

She crossed toward the injured human. “Did you do this?”

Dragon huffed, insulted that she thought him capable of such shoddy work. If he had been responsible for the human’s demise, he would have done it properly…actually killing her, rather than leaving her to bleed out slowly. Her death would have been honorable, like Queenie’s had been.

The elf straightened out the injured girl’s limbs and began to examine her, with no apparent concern for her own safety. She tugged the girl’s shoulders onto her lap, wadded up a corner of her own shirt, and pressed the fabric against the girl’s bleeding head wound.

“You’re getting yourself all dirty,” Dragon scolded, rolling onto his back so that he observed the girl upside down.

He let his legs kick aimlessly in the air, enjoying the cool night breeze against his underbelly.

You look ridiculous, Jerrid said.

“I look magnificent,” Dragon fired back, forgetting that Jerrid wasn’t the only one listening.

Ava shot him a startled look. “No one cares what you look like.”

Ouch, that stung. He was truly magnificent, and it rankled that the elf couldn’t—or wouldn’t—notice him.

Jerrid’s snide laughter rolled over him, heating the core of his gut where his fire dwelled.

“I’ll burn them both to a crisp,” Dragon rasped.

Jerrid’s laughter cut off abruptly, and Dragon smiled smugly.

“Are you talking to yourself?” Ava asked without looking up at him, but he could see the tension in her shoulders.

“No, I don’t make it a habit of talking to myself. I’m talking to him.”

Now her gaze did lift to meet his. “I would like to talk to him too. I don’t suppose you could…let him out?”

“Absolutely not. You’re trying to trick me again.”

Ava’s expression tightened. “I wouldn’t have to trick you if you were behaving reasonably. This girl is injured, and I need Jerrid’s help to save her. The only reasonable thing to do is let Jerrid out so that he can help me.”

“He’ll be naked…”

Her cheeks darkened as if he’d rubbed coal all over her skin. Oh, he liked it when these dark elves blushed. It was a beautiful thing indeed.

Are you falling in love with an elf? Jerrid’s incredulous thought exploded into his mind, and it made something akin to panic stir in Dragon’s chest.

“Of course not, you foolish human! She’s just tasty-looking. That’s the only reason I like her.”

Sure. I believe that.

Ava shot him a disapproving look. “If you like me so much, then you’ll let Jerrid come back to help me. That’s what friends do.”

“Are we friends?”

“I don’t know. Are we?”

Dragon pondered the question. He’d never had a friend before.