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She would have felt a lot better if he hadn’t had to drop the I think at the start of that sentence. Still, she had nothing better to offer. Channeling her inner Cesar, she said, “S-ii-t.”
“They are sitting.” Yesterday scoffed.
“Right.” Calm, dominant energy. Don’t reason with it. Don’t argue with it. Just dominate it. “Down.” Her voice shook.
Glowing red eyes tracked her every wince and flinch.
Eddie cleared her throat and grabbed her dominant—albeit quaking—energy. Her voice ricocheted around the basement. “Down!”
The hounds grumbled and lay down.
“Dude!” Yesterday leaned over farther from his perch. “It worked. Nobody but Asmodeus can command them. Ever.” He made an impressed face. “Not even Wrath, and he can command anything.”
More questions, but so not the time to ask them. “What do I do with them now?”
“Send ’em back.” Yesterday sniffed and scrabbled down the propane tank. He strutted closer to the nearest hound.
A low growl sent him yelping back again.
An unworthy idea wormed into her brain. Yesterday was an annoying little prick. A tiny nip from one of the hounds—the merest nibble—would get him answering all her questions, right quick. She couldn’t do that. Could she? No. Okay, maybe she’d hold that one in reserve.
Cesar was fitting much more comfortably under her skin as she held her hand out and said, “Go home.”
The second hound eyed her, yawned wide enough to display acres of orthodontics, and lowered his head to his paws.
“Home.” She shooed them with her hands. “Go home.”
Yesterday picked his ear with a curved fingernail. “They probably don’t speak English.”
“Allez! Chez! Nous!”
“Or any other human language.” Yesterday rolled his eyes.
The biting idea got a lot more attractive.
He dug something out of his ear and slurped it down. “You should probably try mental compulsion.” He went at his other ear and Eddie couldn’t watch anymore. “You know, like think a thing at them.”
Images of Yesterday getting nipped swarmed her mind.
Hound number one perked up and looked at Yesterday.
Interesting. And not worthy. But, oh so tempting. Instead, Eddie forced that mental movie away and pictured flames and glowing pits of sulfur and sent the mental intention for the hounds to return there.
Number two whined and studied her with an almost comically confused look.
She risked a step away from her water heater haven.
Both hounds stood.
Eddie stopped that idea right along with her feet. “Return,” she thundered with as much authority as she could. “Retourne!” And dredging up her best French from school. “Vous.”
Should she have used retournez? Definitely, but as they couldn’t see her French workbook in their minds, probably not that relevant to the hounds. “Can you guys please go back where you came from?”
“Command them.” Yesterday thrust his bony chest out. “Be firm.”
The first hound whimpered and looked heartbroken. The second inched closer to her with a pleading expression.
“They don’t seem to want to go back,” she said.
