Page 19 of Magpies & Mayhem
I cringed at that. There was no such thing as ‘quiet time’ for this animal.
“But he stayed in there for a long time, so I went in to check on him. Sidney, he had peedall overthe floor and all my stuff in there. And all my missing socks were stockpiled behind a box back in there!”
“They are known to hoard things,” I said with a nod.
“All my missing socks, Sidney!”
“And the mattress?”
“When I pulled him out of my closet, he grabbed my shoe and ran under the bed with it. I couldn’t reach him, so I pulled the bed apart.”
That still didn’t answer what had happened in the living room. I heaved a sigh and then lunged for Huck, because he already had the twin to Josh’s shoe in his mouth.
“Did he do it again?” Josh yelled from the floor.
I shook the pungent smelling dragon drool from the toe of his shoe. “Yes. Why don’t you have his muzzle on him?” I asked as I opened the door to his bedroom. Huck pranced out of the room in front of me and started to chase his tail through the mess of dirt in the living room as I headed to the kitchen to look for our broom.
“He seemed like he wanted a drink,” came Josh’s voice from his room.
“Well, get up off the floor and put it back on him.” I pulled the broom out of the closet and set to work in the living room, listening as Josh entered the room and crouched in front of Huck to replace his muzzle. We’d been doing this so often that he was pretty good about tolerating it now, so I wasn’t paying attention until I heard something that sounded like, ‘Hic-FOOM,’ and turned around to find my brother’s shirt on fire.
“Josh!” I dove over Huck to beat out the flames on the front of his shirt. “What the hell?”
Josh just blinked at me, still clutching the muzzle that was tightly fitted around Huck’s jaws with the buckle half-fastened around the back of his head. “I think he hiccupped,” he said, sounding dazed.
“Well, go put some ice on that,” I ordered, pulling the dragon away from him and taking over finishing the buckle that would hold the muzzle in place.
I’d barely gotten it buckled when he hiccupped again and sprayed fire onto the couch. It was just a short blast, but everywhere flame touched, it took hold. I dropped Huck and ran for the fire extinguisher, grabbing it up, pulling the pin, and unloading foam until the flames went out. Josh just stood staring at the scene from the kitchen while I panted with wide eyes, clutching the extinguisher for dear life. “His muzzle is still on,” I said incredulously. Flames had just shot out the tiny crevice of his closed mouth anyway.
“It was on when hetorched me,” Josh said.
“I don’t know what to do if the muzzle doesn’t stop him from flaming.”
He hiccupped again and spit fire on the rug, which I promptly put out with the extinguisher while Josh sprinted over and grabbed Huck. “I don’t know! Take him outside?” He swung the dragon up in his arms while it continued to hiccup repeatedly, fire arcing across my face, up into the air, and across the ceiling. Huck’s eyes were so wide I could see the whites around the outside.
“Watch where you’re aiming that thing! And I can’t take him outside while it’s daylight! Someone will see him! Now, put him down. You’re scaring him.”
“He’s scaringme, Sidney! He’ssetting the house on fire!”
I was trying to put the couch out again, but just as he said that, the fire extinguisher ran out. I grabbed the scorched rug and used it to beat out the rest of the flames.
“Go stand with him in the shower until his hiccups stop,” I said.
“You need to call someone!”
“Who am I going to call?” I yelled. I knew who Ineededto call, but I didn’t want to do it.
“I don’t care who you call, just call someone!” Josh yelled back as he carried the dragon into our bathroom. I followed behind, frantically smothering the flames he trailed behind him with the burned-up rug. “He can’t stay here, Sidney! I’m serious!”
“I know that!” I rubbed my stinging eyes and dug out my calling stones. For the second time today, a panicked message left our apartment with a spectral, this time headed for Elara’s house. We would still have to wait for nightfall, but I could pack a bag in the meantime. I didn’t want help from the vampire who was emotionally unstable and—justifiably—angry at me, but I was out of ideas.
Theknockthatcameas soon as night fell sounded like both my salvation and my doom. I tried not to glare as I opened the door, but I’m not sure how successful I was. Jordan didn’t say anything, just stood there surveying the damage. I had multiple burns that had already begun healing, but the worst ones would take a few more days. My hair smelled like smoke, and I had bags under my eyes. What was left of the couch was a charred mess, and there were scorch marks up the wall behind me. We were never going to get our deposit back on the apartment.
“Why does it smell like burned hair?” Jordan asked quietly. He pulled off his helmet and raked his eyes over my face and hair, like he was searching for singed spots.
“That’s probably the rats we feed the dragon,” I grumbled, but Jordan shook his head.
“No, this is mixed with the scent of human skin.”
