Page 61 of Plaidypus
The magic offering her life beyond death had changed her, and while she wasn’t talking yet, she showed every sign of understanding our conversation and communicating her opinion with bobs or shakes of her head and the rare snort when something disgusted her.
Lucifer’s antics were most likely to disgust her, which amused me.
“Ready for a good fish fight?” Lucifer asked, making himself comfortable in his chair. “My minions should be initiating contact with your brother now. It seems Ernesto is already teaching him how to tolerate the sun while there is magic helping with that. They’ve decided they can’t afford to move only at night. Your lycanthrope’s patience has frayed, and he is concocting hundreds of ways you might be suffering.”
Icy bobbed her head and whuffled before resting her head on the large cushion the Devil had procured for her enjoyment. While she didn’t get a lounge chair, she had a nest of cushions and a blanket to keep her cozy.
To my delight, she seemed to enjoy lazing about and watching me fish.
“That took them a while,” Darlene muttered, shaking her head. “Which one of them got tired of it first?”
“My cindercorn, of course. Nadine’s lycanthrope is impatient and anxious, but he’s far more restrained than my cindercorn. She wants to run and play in the sun. Her father’s power is rather strong here for some reason.” Lucifer waved his hand at the sunny sky. “They don’t worship Ra here, but his presence is strong. She’s at her prime and is quite tired of romping in her mother’s domain. She wants to go play at the beach. This is not quite the beach she has in mind, but I’m sure we can locate a beach for her eventually.”
“Is this when you transform into horses to trick them?” I asked, reeling in my line, adding fresh bait, and casting, prepared for a fight with a fish who’d end up going home with the Devil as part of his species conservation efforts. “Wouldn’t it be nicer for the fish to just teleport him to your home?”
“It wouldn’t be as much fun for you. A fight won’t hurt him. Well, it won’t hurt him for long. I bargained with one of my brothers to have both fish healed properly so they can have a long retirement in my home.”
Why wasn’t I surprised? “What did you bargain?”
“I promised to limit being angry with our father to five minutes instead of ten. I will regret this. My brother told me I would regret this. I told him I understood I would have regrets, but as we’re all opposed to an unscheduled End of Days, five minutes of severe irritation is a good limit. Plus I told my brother he could serve as the referee for the argument. That was more worth the hassle of playing doctor for my new fish. So, you don’t even have to worry about the hook damage. My brother will be taking care of it as soon as you’ve landed him. Are you ready? The fish going to hit that bait and hook like he means it. He won’t toy with it at all. That will be his dinner, and he wants itnow. You’ll have an easy time setting the hook as long as you give it a good jerk on the first bite.”
Right. The other silver ghost had been more of a nibbler, which had given me time to set the hook before waging war with her. I rolled my shoulders, braced my foot against a rather large boulder, and braced for a massive fish trying to rip my arms out of their sockets. “I take it they’re here?”
Lucifer gestured to the slope behind us, which led to a retaining wall and a staircase up to the street. “You’ll have an audience within the next twenty seconds.”
“I want them to see the start of the fight,” I replied.
“T-minus fifteen seconds,” the Devil warned.
As I’d learned the Lord of Lies often spoke the truth, I counted down the seconds, ready for his new pet fish to bite. My animals waited, their eagerness growing with each passing moment. While I wanted the fish, they wanted to see the wolf who’d been kind enough to make me hot chocolate.
I thought about impressing upon them there was more to life than hot chocolate, but I tried to keep from lying too often.
As promised, at the fifteen second mark, the equivalent of a submarine went for my bait. I set the hook, braced against my chosen rock, and began my battle with a fish likely bigger and heavier than I was.
Some days, it was good to be a shapeshifter and a lycanthrope. A normal human woman, no matter how fit, would have gotten her ass handed to her by the fish.
SEVENTEEN
What happened to playing as ponies?
Unlike the female silver ghost, the male wanted nothing to do with being hooked or brought in. While I battled the fish, Lucifer fought with his beloved niece, who scolded him for being an insufferable jackass and making her life more difficult. The cindercorn’s fur steamed, and Icy observed with interest. The other cindercorn, wisely deciding to stay out of it, opted to keep my moose company and take a nap.
Icy sniffed at the black and red mottled unicorn, decided he didn’t count as a threat, and returned to observing the free entertainment that had come calling.
Darlene waved her iced coffee at Leonard. “Two iced coffees, please. One for me, one for her.”
I peeked at him, amused over his pained expression.
Then, as he had more sense than most, he went up the hill to retrieve the Devil’s wife a fresh drink, returning several minutes later with two beverages. “Iced coffee for her, iced mocha for her, as iced coffee lacks chocolate.”
“Smart, smart man.”
Damn. I should have made Darlene get me iced mochas, although I had to admit I liked her drink of choice, too.
My brother set up a large umbrella nearby, made a nest of beach towels, and opted to take a nap. As the Australian sun beat down on us, I couldn’t blame him for wanting to sleep off the heat of the day.
That left me with an older gentleman and a younger woman who was a chip off his block, and once the general excitement settled, they regarded me with interest. Once confident I could fight with my silver ghost and hold a conversation, I said, “You must be the Chicago vampires. I’m sorry you got dragged into this mess. Lucifer got pissy over the circumstances, and after letting me run free for a day, decided he wanted to go fishing. So, we’re fishing. Darlene doesn’t fish much, but she seems to enjoy watching me catch her new pets.”
