Page 98 of Cats Never Fly

“Thiswasn’t your fault, kitty cat.”Iwrapped my arms around him. “Andif you went after him,Imight have lost you too.”

Afterthat, we waited impatiently for the bear, the troll, and the human to be questioned.Van, being a hellhound, could tell when someone was lying, soItrusted him when he said those three didn’t know where the unicorn had ended up.Thatmeant we needed to talk to the demonGagehad hauled away.Asif reading my thoughts,Vanwas already on his phone again.

“Damnit,”Vansnarled after a brief conversation.

“What?Whathappened?”Haydendemanded.

“Thedemon is gone.”Vanfrowned.

“Heescaped?”Haydenlooked ready to shift and run all the way back toWillowLaketo hunt for the demon.

“No.”Vanshook his head. “Apparentlywhen we killed the mage, the demon started convulsing.Theytried to save him, but…He’sdead.Gagesuspects it was part of the mage’s curse to keep the demon under his control.”

Dreadpooled in my stomach. “Sohow are we going to findMorgan?”

“Whatif he’s with someone who is hurting him right now?”Simonpaled. “Or…Whatif he is all alone and trapped in that cage with no one to care for him or release him?”

Vangrimaced. “Unicornshave more magic than most supes.Hecan survive a long time, even if he is trapped without food or water.”

“Butit’d be torture…”Iwhispered.

Nelsonemerged from the shadows at the side of the building.Helooked me square in the eye. “I’llfind him.Ican promise you that.”

Hispromise calmed me.Ididn’t need to be a hellhoundto trustNelsonwas telling me the truth.Ibelieved him.Ihad to trust he’d findMorgan.

“Thankyou,”Isaid, tugging the austere-looking man into my arms. “Heis sweetness personified.Hedoesn’t deserve this.”

Behindme,Simongrowled.Thenhe pulled me away fromNelsonand pressed his face into my neck.

“It’sokay, kitty cat.I’mall yours.”

“Don’tlike you hugging people where you are half naked,” he muttered as he tightened his arms around me.

“Iknow.I’msorry.”Ipatted him.Beingin his arms gave me a sense of peaceIfearedI’dlost whenIfirst woke in that stupid cage again.

Ittook another few hours before we could leave.Thistime, when we climbed intoVan’sSUV,IpulledSimoninto the back seat and crawled into his lap.ThenIcuddled close to my mate and hummed “Weare theChampions”all the way back toWillowLake.

Icouldn’t believe they’d all come to help us… to help me.Iwas thankful for every one of them andIwould never forget what they had done today.

Itwould take a long time to pay off this debt to them.

Fewyounger supes observed ancient traditions like life debts.ButIwas ancient myself, soIdid.Iwould use all my power to give each and every one of these people whatever they desired until my dragon believed they had been properly compensated for coming to my mate’s aid whenIcouldn’t.

Chapter Thirty-One

SIMON

Fortwo full days, we didn’t answer our phones or the door to my apartment.Butby the third day,IknewMamawould take an axe to my door if we didn’t surface soon.Weprobably should have gone to see her when we returned fromAspenBay, butI’djust wanted to holdOgdenand never let him go.

We’dspent a lot of time in bed during those two days, just like we had during the week before, but we’d also talked a lot.Wealso watched a lot of shows.OgdensaidIwas addicted to nature documentaries, joking about how he now knew more about flamingoes, sea cucumbers, and tamarin monkeys than he’d ever wanted to.ThenI’dtease him about his musicals and talent shows.Andsomehow it all worked.

Nowthat theEternalMagichad blessed our union, everything was better.Wehad better conversations.Bettersex.Justbettereverything.

Ogdentold me about the many, many things he’d done throughout his long life, his family, and his plans to build a home for us inWillowLake.Ididn’t have nearly as many stories to tell, but he seemed to find them interesting anyway.

Andhe’d also used that time to try to convince me his money was my money.Ididn’t fall for it right away, but his arguments were increasingly difficult to resist, particularly when he talked about the custom-designed home he envisioned for us.And, let’s face it,Ogdendeserved a life of luxury.Irefused to live apart from him, so it looked likeI’dhave those luxuries too.

Hecould be relentlessly persuasive when he was naked… andIwas naked… and we were doing naked things together.